Tristan at the ROH Copyright © Victor Weston 2010

(with a mention of thanks to Adam the House Manager)

A heightened ambition realised
The impact of the music anticipated
An emotional feast expected
The crowds hubbubing before the performance
The orchestra tuning up - discordantly
Lights lighting up the tiers of balconies
The stage is bare - empty save for one chair
A hushed darkness, the familiar notes, begins
The sublime ecstacy of love between persons
Caught up in so powerful a love
beyond their own imaginings
Whose power is so strong that
All else is subsumed in its passion
An infusion of divinity
Even as the work speaks of atonement
Between individuals
And how love even conquers death
Of that darkness from which the light is totally excluded
Where consummated passions
Risk the realities shown illuminated by the daylight
Schopenhauer’s brilliance
Depicted minimalistically on stage
A deserved roaring standing ovation for Nina Stemme
Whose voice soared high above the orchestra
Reducing all falling under her spell
To tears and wonder, and in
her Liebestod