At Last: “Tristan” Curse is Broken!
I went to the matinee of the “cursed” Met Opera production of “Tristan und Isolde” this afternoon. The principals must have slipped something lucky into their otherwise tragic love potion: nothing untoward happened — no singers cancelled or dropped out halfway through, no one fell into the prompter’s box. Kansas native Robert Dean Smith, making his Met debut, as Tristan, had a clear, pleasing voice. He couldn’t compete with Deborah Voigt (pictured), the Isolde, in intensity, and he occasionally looked like he was loitering around the stage rather than inhabiting it, but he’s a singer to watch. James “Nurse” Levine conducted, superlatively.
