Danger Music: Edward Christian-Hare marvels at the London Symphony Orchestra’s latest opera in concert

Review of Tristan und Isolde (concert perf.), conducted Pappano, Barbican, London, 2026.

November 2026, Volume 20, Number 3, 80–81.

‘I remember the first time I conducted Tristan und Isolde, and it almost made me ill’ explains Sir Antonio Pappano in a video exploring the opera’s significance. He’s not alone. Wagner’s monumental drama is rumoured to have killed Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld who died at 29, weeks after creating the role of Tristan in Munich in 1865. Legendary conductors Felix Mottl and Joseph Keilberth collapsed on the podium during Act II and, like Carolsfeld, died soon afterwards. These events have contributed to the lore surrounding Wagner’s Handlung (literally ‘action’), so extreme in its demands on performers and audiences that it has acquired a dangerous reputation. The calibre of a Tristan performance should therefore be judged according to the musicians’ abilities to conjure such emotional extremes whilst executing its formidable score with precision.