Opera Scotland

Tristan und Isolde 1958Stuttgart State Opera

Read more about the opera Tristan and Isolde

In 1958 it would have been very difficult to assemble a better Tristan cast anywhere in the world. Wieland Wagner's staging of this work more than any other exhibited his new ideas which revolutionised opera direction for the next few decades. How these wonderful elements combined within the confines of the King's can only be imagined - but in 1973 Scottish Opera certainly managed with little difficulty, so it can be done. And most of the elements re-assembled in 1966 when the Stuttgart ensemble brought Lohengrin.

The other works in the repertoire for this visit were by Mozart (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Weber (Euryanthe) and Lortzing (Der Wildschütz).

Cast details are from our copy of the Festival programme book as well as the programme. It is only the latter that specifies the precise dates on which the brief role of the young offstage sailor was allocated between the company's two great lyric tenors, Josef Traxel and Fritz Wunderlich, but in either event this was luxury casting.