Tristan und Isolde opens the Met season in a new production by Mariusz Treliński (the director responsible for the 2014–15 season’s double bill of Iolanta and Bluebeard’s Castle), and will be well served by a cast of outstanding Wagnerians: Nina Stemme as Isolde, Stuart Skelton as Tristan, Ekaterina Gubanova as Brangäne, and René Pape as King Marke, with Sir Simon Rattle conducting, in one of his rare appearances at the Met.

An “audacious new production… Compelling, vulnerable performances… from a strong cast, especially the astonishing soprano Nina Stemme… [Her Isolde is] outstanding… from steely rawness to melting warmth.” Stuart Skelton “sings with musical integrity and feeling.” Simon Rattle conducts with “impressively balanced clarity and richness, coolness and intensity, intelligence and impetuosity.”
—New York Times

World premiere: Munich Court Theater, 1865. Wagner’s breathtaking meditation on love and death holds a unique place in the opera world. Its music has astounded, infuriated, and inspired audiences since it was first heard, and the title roles are acknowledged as among the most extraordinarily demanding in opera. The vocal challenges, the sumptuous symphonic scale of the orchestral writing, and the mystical nature of the story, with its opportunities for creative visual design, make this awe-inspiring work a phenomenon of the repertory.