Nina Parly, Doing the Diva Dying: Performative Studies of Death in ‘Tristan und Isolde’

March 2016, Volume 10, Number 1, 45–55.

Wagner’s works, with their extraordinary status in the operatic world of today, frequently serve as a testing ground for new concepts and new approaches from directors and performers, as demonstrated by, for example, the famous centenary Ring at Bayreuth (1976) or the Stuttgart Ring (2000). The level of expectation in the various audiences is always high and is often matched by the level of innovation on stage – with controversial results. In this article I shall investigate the aural and visual elements in the clash between expectation and realisation, focusing on the interactions between stage and auditorium in a live performance and comparing these with the one-way communication of DVD productions.