Back to Basics: Simon Williams is entranced by a production of ‘Tristan’ that imprisons its audience as much as its characters

There is an intriguing anomaly about the way in which many productions at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico have been staged. The semi-open-air theatre is generally agreed to be one of the most gracefully designed auditoria for opera, while the mountain and desert setting in which it sits is arguably unmatched anywhere in the world. It is the ideal site for staging Romantic opera. But directors seem resolutely to deny, even defy, the scenic potential the theatre itself offers.