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| Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Peter Wedd - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis) |
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde; Peter Wedd, Catharine Woodward, Catherine Carby, Robert Hayward, Alistair Miles, director: Carmen Jakobi/Guido Martin-Brandis, conductor: Anthony Negus; Longborough Festival Opera
Reviewed 12 July 2026
An Isolde who prized tonal beauty, a vividly intense and heroic Tristan welded into a compelling performance where detailed personen regie was allied to strong musical values and an admirable lack of irritating concepts
Wagner's Tristan und Isolde was premiered in Munich in 1865 with Ludwig and Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld in the title roles. Their being husband and wife solving one of the work's problems - that the story and Wagner's treatment of it was considered somehow improper! But this was Wagner's first attempt at staging the work, even the well-funded Hofoper in Vienna had failed. Despite over 70 rehearsals between 1862 and 1864, Vienna entirely failed to stage the opera.
The confounding thing about Tristan und Isolde was not so much its length: works by Halévy and Meyerbeer at the Paris Opera lasted as long. But even Meyerbeer's Le prophète (the success of which Wagner both despised and envied), with its taxing tenor lead role, had long stretches when the tenor did not sing, the focus turning to other characters or large scale ensembles.
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| Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Ludwig & Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld - Hofoper, Munich 1865 |
Tristan und Isolde has none of these, Wagner's focus is largely on the two protagonists and the early attempts to stage it fell because singers struggled to learn the roles and the number of requisite voices able to sing them was probably small. Tristan requires a very different type of stamina to the Meyerbeer's large tenor roles, though later in the 19th century a tenor like Jean de Reske would sing both Meyerbeer and Wagner in the same season [see my 2015 review of Karen Henson's book Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the Late Nineteeth Century].
Longborough Festival Opera's production of Tristan und Isolde (its first ever) debuted in 2015, the product of the husband and wife team of director Carmen Jakobi and conductor Anthony Negus. Revived in 2017, it returned this year (seen 12 July 2026) with Guido Martin-Brandis as associate director. Peter Wedd returned to Tristan (a role he sang here in 2015 and 2017) and Catharine Woodward made her role debut as Isolde. Catherine Carby was Brangäne, Robert Hayward was Kurwenal, Alistair Miles was King Mark, Brian Smith Walters was Melot, Peter Bronder was the shepherd. Designs were by Kimie Nakano. Lucy Cullingford was movement director and intimacy coordinator.
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| Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Peter Wedd, Catharine Woodward - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis) |
There have evidently been changes to the production since 2015 and what we saw this year combined simple yet effective abstract stage pictures with strong and detailed personenregie. The produced was admirably free of concepts. An intimacy coordinator was credited, so even before the first notes of the prelude we knew this was not one of those productions where Tristan and Isolde never actually touch. In fact, I felt that the maker's of Catharine Woodward's non-smudge lipstick deserved their own credit. Costumes were atmospheric and non-specific, though there was something evocative of The Last Samurai about Peter Wedd's outfit.
From the opening notes of the prelude it was clear that Anthony Negus and the orchestra brought both shape and direction to the music. Negus never made the mistake of getting lost in the beauties of individual phrases, this was about whole paragraphs with the end of each act clearly in sight at the beginning.
Act One is about Isolde's rage and oh boy did Catharine Woodward do furious intensely well. This Isolde was clearly aristocratic, poised and stylish with a nice line in put downs. There was a bright clarity and warmth to Woodward's voice, she relished beauty of tone, and we were never aware of the effort it took to make the vocal lines sound so appealing. It helped that in Anthony Negus she had a wonderfully supportive partner.
Catherine Carby sang Brangäne in both previous outings of this production. Her Brangäne was ardent and youthful so that the scene between her and Catharine Woodward's Isolde became compelling drama.
Peter Wedd's tenor had a dark baritonal quality without compromising the top. In Act One, this Tristan was very much a grizzled veteran, and it was clear that he was already very much in love with Isolde, so the love potion simply released what was already present. It is a long time since I have seen and account of the final scene to Act One that was as compelling as this. Wedd and Woodward had us on the edge of our seats whilst making the music soar.
For both Act One and Act Two, Robert Hayward made a gruff, supportive, older Kurwenal, care for his master tempered by a brusque manner.
The detailed personenregie really paid off in this production, these were real people not archetypes and throughout the opera Jakobi was clearly able to enliven the stage with details. So that, for instance Brian Smith Walters' silent entry as Melot at the end of Act One made much sense of the later drama.
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| Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Catherine Carby, Catharine Woodward - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis) |
In Act Two, Carby made Brangäne's injunctions for Isolde to take care into something that really mattered. So the scene between her and Woodward's wide-eyed, ardent Isolde took on real significance rather than simply being the prelude to the love scene.
The love scene is long: yes, Wagner does structure it but the challenged is what to do with the singers over such a long span. Initially, in the instrumental sections Wedd and Woodward were all over each other but later on the staging became more conceptual. There were, however, moments when you felt the body chorography had been developed in 2015 on a very different Isolde and you wished time had been available to restage it so that the scene really flowed with Wedd and Woodward.
However, musically things were near mesmerising from start to finish. The ardency of Woodward's tone matched by the intensity and sheer feeling of Wedd's Tristan. Whilst Woodward's Isolde radiated ardent rapture and beauty of tone, Wedd's Tristan was more robust, focusing on individual words and phrases, the slight gruffness of tone lending character and contrasting with Woodward. The end of the love duet was as close to coitus interruptus as it might be possible in the theatre.
From his first entry, Alistair Miles's King Mark was tall, controlled, rigid and well fierce. Miles made every word count and turned the screw admirably. This led naturally to the moment when Tristan asked Isolde if she will follow where he is going.
There was little that was mystical here. Wedd's Tristan was a broken man, one whose world had collapsed and he saw no other way. Woodward's Isolde, however was almost radiant. The ending saw Tristan effective walk into Melot's sword with Smith Walters making a strong impression as Melot (he is covering Tristan during the run).
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| Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Peter Wedd, Robert Hayward, Peter Bronder - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis) |
The opening of Act Three is Kurwenal's and Robert Hayward really came into his own here. On complete display was the man's care for Tristan, his disdain (perhaps dislike) for Isolde, his amour propre as a fighting man and something approaching tenderness. With a youthful Kurwenal the homoerotic possibilities of this scene are striking, but Hayward managed to suggest these in a different context and the results really tugged the heart strings. And though Hayward might have projected a gruff, bluff image, but tonally he was focussed an expressive.
Tristan's climactic final scene was, of course, given complete. Wedd's performance was tireless and heroic, in control until the very end. His was a highly histrionic approach to the scene; throughout the opera this Tristan had been very vigorous, very much the action man. This was allied to great tonal variation, Wedd giving importance not so much to line as expressivity and colour. At times, it felt almost too much, and I would have preferred less histrionics, but faced with such a commanding account of the role it feels complaint is unnecessary.
Alistair Miles made King Mark's speech into something profoundly moving, however the sudden eruption of Jacobean-revenge-tragedy-style killing seemed to break the mood unnecessarily.
However, Catharine Woodward's account of the final Liebestod was in many ways transcendent. Aiming for radiance and an element of transfiguration, Woodward drew out a surprising amount of tonal beauty to crown a fine, compelling performance.
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| Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Peter Wedd, Alistair Miles, Catharine Woodward - Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis) |
The chorus was hard-working throughout. Their choruses in Act One were admirably vigorous with Tobias Campos as the sailor and Fraser Robinson as the helmsman. Later Peter Bronder brought a touching solicitude to the shepherd, now an older man.
In the pit, Anthony Negus and the orchestra were very much as one. Yes, the strings sometimes lacked an element of ideal tonal beauty, but this was a Tristan und Isolde where you felt every gesture was thought through and meant something.
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