If Only They Could Bring Back Birgit
The current Metropolitan Opera run of a certain Wagner opera has been so plagued with problems that some enterprising documentarian might want to tell the story on film as “The Curse of Tristan.” According to an article in today’s New York Times, the difficulties plaguing singers who scale the main roles are longstanding: “‘Tristan and Isolde’ has long been a magnet for trouble. Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld, the first Tristan, died of a heart attack in Munich in 1865, at 29, within weeks of the premiere, leaving the first Isolde — his wife, Malvina — a widow.” Read more.
