Tristan und Isolde - La Scala - Music - New York Times 01/29/2008 10:11 AM

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Tristan and Isolde Go to La Scala: The Video
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Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Opera fans filled Symphony Space on Sunday to enjoy La Scala’s “Tristan und Isolde” on video, a concept pioneered by
the Met.
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: January 29, 2008
E-MAIL

The annals of opera will record that Peter Gelb, the general manager PRINT
of the Metropolitan Opera, was the trailblazer who brought high- SAVE
definition video broadcasts of performances to movie theaters around SHARE
the world. Following the enormous success of this venture,
companies from the San Francisco Opera to La Scala in Milan have
embraced the idea.

The videos from La Scala are now being screened in the Peter Jay
Sharp Theater at Symphony Space. On Sunday afternoon almost all of the auditorium’s
760 seats were filled for Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” a new production by the
renowned director Patrice Chéreau. Introduced last month, this was the company’s first
staging of this towering work in nearly 30 years.

The elaborately edited high-definition video, with riveting close-ups, was assembled
from the opening night and later performances at La Scala. Central to Mr. Gelb’s
conception of the Met’s venture was that broadcasts would be live: audiences in movie
houses would vicariously experience the performance with patrons at the Met. Take away
the live element and you take away a lot.

Still, the eager audience at Symphony Space was remarkably attentive: during each of the
three long acts, there was scant snacking, and few people left their seats. Here, after all,
was a chance to see an ambitious production direct from the famed Scala stage. The
audience tried gamely to generate that collective spirit of attending the opera.

When the conductor Daniel Barenboim made his first appearance in the pit, the
Symphony Space audience applauded warmly. Without any warning or explanation, the
orchestra broke into the Italian national anthem, which provoked confused looks among
people sitting near me. An older woman, flush with patriotism, stood up during the
anthem, blocking the view of a couple seated behind her, who grumbled for her to sit
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Tristan und Isolde - La Scala - Music - New York Times 01/29/2008 10:11 AM

anthem, blocking the view of a couple seated behind her, who grumbled for her to sit
down.
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Mr. Barenboim drew a superb performance from the Scala orchestra. The string sound E-MAILED BLOGGED SEARCHED

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visually spare (just industrial-gray brick walls and platforms) and profoundly humane.
There are scenes of wrenching tenderness, as when the anguished Irish princess Isolde
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During curtain calls opera buffs at Symphony Space registered their reactions with
applause and bravos. Ms. Meier’s ovation was the biggest. Someone should tell her.
ADVERTISEMENTS
The next video from La Scala, “La Traviata,” with Angela Gheorghiu, will be shown on
Arts & more.
Feb. 13 and 17 at Symphony Space; (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org.
50% off Times delivery.

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Past Coverage

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Tristan und Isolde - La Scala - Music - New York Times 01/29/2008 10:11 AM

Stepping In for a Star, but Not Feeling Like One (December 16, 2006)
After La Scala Boos, a Tenor Boos Back (December 13, 2006)
Arts, Briefly (July 3, 2006)
Barenboim Takes On an Important Role at La Scala (May 10, 2006)

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