TRISTANO

Speranza

Nothing could have prepared Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld for the role of "Tristano", which he premiered in 1865, fifteen years after "Lohengrin" received its debut in Weimar.

"Tristano" is quite simply the longest tenor role in the entire operatic repertory and its sheer length is stunning.

"Tristano" must sing almost an hour’s worth of music, while Verdi’s Otello must sing for approximately thirty minutes.

 

Not only is the Tristano role excessive in length, but it requires singing over an orchestra that is used in a different manner than before.

 

Wagner’s orchestra, while not technically larger, is more complex and plays the leitmotifs that often
communicate the drama as much as the singers’ words do.

 

It is the combination of stamina and the work’s orchestration that defeat most singers of "Tristano".

 

The central difficulty for Tristano, the glue that binds the other difficulties and eventually defeats the singer with them, is stamina.

 

Instead of a basic paradigm of vocal melody with accompaniment, or a string-based texture with support and coloration from winds and brass, Wagner confides the main material to the winds and brass, and fills the string parts with vigorously swirling and churning ornamental overlay.

The combination of length and dominating orchestral accompaniment creates almost unreasonable demands for any singer.

The vocal range of Tristan is no different than that of Lohengrin. 

 

Tristano sings from c-sharp to a′.

 

 

(23 Tristan’s music was timed at a length of fifty-eight minutes and twenty-two seconds in Wilhelm
Furtwängler, dir., Tristan und Isolde, by Richard Wagner, Philharmonia Orchestra, EMI 7 473228. The
total length of this recording is four hours, eighteen minutes, and twenty-six seconds. Otello’s music was
timed at twenty-nine minutes and two seconds in Herbert von Karajan, dir., Otello, by Giuseppe Verdi,
Wiener Philharmonic, Decca 411 618-2. The total length of this recording is two hours, eighteen minutes,
and ten seconds)

REFERENCES:

Will Crutchfield, “The Tristan Test,” Opera News, December 1999: 16.

Though the Tristano role requires more singing in the lower register than either Tannhäuser or Lohengrin (in Act I, before he drinks the potion; in Act II, Scene iii, when he sings his monologue/aria: “O König, das kann ich dir nicht sagen;” and in Act III, when he first stirs), the tessitura becomes quite high during times of mounting tension. (There's a low tessitura in Act III while there's mounting tessitura in the long love duet of Act II, scene ii.)

Though Tristan presents unprecedented demands to any heroic tenor who must sing this critical role, the vocal lines are usually rather tuneful.

 

It is true that Tristan must sing chromatic lines and tritone intervals, and it is also true that the tonal underpinnings of the work are constantly shifting.

 

Yet the vocal line is hardly a disjointed collection of random intervals, as some critics make the work out to be.

 

Eduard Hanslick thought that Tristan und Isolde was “unvocal” and “unsingable” and he believed that the main roles sin not only in their excessive demands upon the voice; because of the unnatural intonation, the dominance of the chromatic and the enharmonic, the restless, inconclusive
modulations, they are ultimately difficult to impress upon the memory.

 

Certainly, performing the role of Tristan is not easy.

 

The singer who performs Tristan must not only have a large, durable voice.

 

He must also be an excellent musician with a superb memory.

 

A singer with all of those attributes is not easily found, but the music of Tristan can be sung with a sound technique, with legato, and with attention paid to dynamics and phrasing.

 

Singing the entire role, without barking out notes, is a very difficult task.

The most difficult moments of the role occur in the fifth scene of Act I, after Tristan and Isolde have consumed the potion, in the long love duet of Act II, and in Tristan’s delirious monologue aria in Act III.

 

After drinking the potion, Tristan and Isolde enter into a relatively short, yet tremendously ecstatic duet that might more accurately be called a volley of phrases.

 

At this moment, the orchestra occasionally produces a torrent of sound achieved by having the winds and brass playing at forte and fortissimo.

 

This level of sound is not constantly produced by the orchestra, but it is produced more consistently in Tristan und Isolde than in any other of Wagner’s previous works, and probably than in all of his other works.

 

In fact, Wagner himself later thought the orchestration too heavy, particularly in the second act, and he considered revising the orchestration.

 

Tristan does much of his singing in Act II.

 

 

25 Hanslick, Hanslick’s Musical Criticisms: 224.
26 See the December 11 and December 18, 1881 entries in Cosima Wagner’s Diaries, 2: 767, 773.

Tristan actually sings for a longer period of time in Act II than in Act III, though he shares the singing burden of the second act with Isolde.

 

When Tristan meets Isolde in the second scene of Act II, every instrument in the orchestra, with the exception of the trumpets and the harp, accompanies his cry of “Isolde” at fortissimo (the winds, horns, and strings) or forte (the trombones, tuba, and timpani).

 

Eventually the trumpets join in when the couple sings “O Wonne” just a moment later.

Though after Lohengrin, Wagner tended to not have his characters sing simultaneously, in Tristan und Isolde, the two main characters often sing together.

Sometimes they exchange phrases in rapid succession, sometimes they sing in unison, and sometimes they a type of intricate counterpoint.

 

Thus, to be heard, the tenor singing Tristan must compete not only against the orchestra, but also against his soprano colleague.

The level of Tristan and Isolde’s singing does not remain at forte throughout the second act.

 

In the middle of their love duet, the dynamic level comes down to pianissimo at “O sink hernieder, Nacht der Liebe,” before the couple approaches a musical climax.

This process of building intensity, relaxing, and then building again also occurs in Act III.

 

Though Wagner placed tremendous demands on his singers, he did not write music that is completely relentless.

 

Tristan also has an opportunity to rest when King Mark makes his appearance in Act II and sings his long monologue.

 

Tristan’s response, “O König,” has a lower tessitura, which also gives the tenor some respite.

Act III of "Tristan" remains one of the greatest tests of stamina for a Heldentenor.

 

The amount of singing required of Tristan in this act is greater than many other opera roles, and in this act Tristan sings alone (though Kurwenal sings solo passages as well, which gives Tristan at least a little time to rest).

 

As stated earlier, the tessitura begins low, only to rise as the dramatic tension increases.

 

Accordingly, the orchestra becomes fuller and is scored more heavily.

 

When Tristan curses the potion, every instrument but the harp plays fortissimo.

 

Only Siegfried compares in terms of length and difficulty, though, as will be seen later, Siegfried is not required to sing the long, sustained musical lines that Tristan has.