Transfigured night: Tristan and Isolde

By Matthew Rye, 10 June 2016

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Reviewed at The London Coliseum, London on 9 June 2016

Wagner, Tristan und Isolde

English National Opera

Edward Gardner, Conductor

Daniel Kramer, Director

Anish Kapoor, Set Designer

Heidi Melton, Isolde

Stuart Skelton, Tristan

Matthew Rose, King Marke

Karen Cargill, Brangäne

Craig Colclough, Kurwenal

Stephen Rooke, Melot

Peter Van Hulle, Shepherd

David Webb, Young seaman

Paul Sheehan, Helmsman

English National Opera Orchestra

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English National Opera's revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular production is a blend of spectacle with some first-class singing, with Lucy Crowe emphasising her Mozartian credentials.

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).

Transfigured night: Tristan and Isolde at ENO