Naval Gazing: Simon Morgan concludes that a director’s over-reliance on visual stimulation can leave his audience all at sea

Review of Tristan und Isolde, directed Treliński, conducted Rattle, Baden-Baden, 2016.

July 2016, Volume 10, Number 2, 56–58.

One always wonders why Wagner dubbed Tristan und Isolde a ‘Handlung in drei Aufzügen’ since in nearly five hours of music, there is no real ‘action’ at all. In today’s age of ever-shortening attention spans and increasing sensory overload, that may be seen to be a problem. Polish director Mariusz Treliński seems to think so.