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Tristan und Isolde: Mild und liese, by Richard Wagner; Vanessa Schukis, soprano, as Isolde, Anita Costanzo, mezzo-soprano, as Brangaena; Drew Poling, Tristan; David Edgar Walther, bass-baritone, as King Mark. Shu'ann Chai, is the pianist, The Acting Singers Project. The text is below the clip.
Apology: Wagner was a terrible person who held some horrendous beliefs, but he also produced some beautiful musical moments. We celebrate those brief points of light! |
MARK All dead then! All dead! My hero, my Tristan! Most faithful of friends, must you even today betray your friend? Today, when he comes to avow to you his deepest faith? Awake! Awake! Awake! to my wailing! You faithless, most faithful of friends!
BRANGAENE She wakes! She is alive! Isolde! Listen to me, hear my repentance! The draught's secret I have revealed to the King; In anxious haste he put out to sea to reach you, to renounce you, to lead your beloved to you.
MARK Why, Isolde, why have you done this? When it was clearly revealed to me what I had not been able to comprehend, how happy I was that I found my friend free of guilt. To wed you to this glorious man with full sail I flew after you. But misfortune's
impetuous haste, how can the bringer of peace control it? I increased the harvest of Death, madness added yet more distress.
BRANGAENE Isolde! Dearest! Can you not hear your faithful Brangaene?
ISOLDE How softly and gently he smiles, how sweetly his eyes open - can you see, my friends, do you not see it? How he glows ever brighter, raising himself high amidst the stars? Do you not see it? How his heart swells with courage, gushing full and majestic in his breast? How in tender bliss sweet breath gently wafts from his lips -Friends! Look! Do you not feel and see it? Do I alone hear this melody so wondrously and gently sounding from within him, in bliss lamenting, all-expressing, gently reconciling, piercing me,
soaring aloft, its sweet echoes resounding about me? Are they gentle aerial waves ringing out clearly, surging around me? Are they billows of blissful fragrance? As they seethe and roar about me, shall I breathe, shall I give ear? Shall I drink of them, plunge beneath them? Breathe my life away in sweet scents? In the heaving swell, in the resounding echoes, in the universal stream of the world- breath -to drown, to founder - unconscious - utmost rapture!
BRANGAENE She wakes! She is alive! Isolde! Listen to me, hear my repentance! The draught's secret I have revealed to the King; In anxious haste he put out to sea to reach you, to renounce you, to lead your beloved to you.
MARK Why, Isolde, why have you done this? When it was clearly revealed to me what I had not been able to comprehend, how happy I was that I found my friend free of guilt. To wed you to this glorious man with full sail I flew after you. But misfortune's
impetuous haste, how can the bringer of peace control it? I increased the harvest of Death, madness added yet more distress.
BRANGAENE Isolde! Dearest! Can you not hear your faithful Brangaene?
ISOLDE How softly and gently he smiles, how sweetly his eyes open - can you see, my friends, do you not see it? How he glows ever brighter, raising himself high amidst the stars? Do you not see it? How his heart swells with courage, gushing full and majestic in his breast? How in tender bliss sweet breath gently wafts from his lips -Friends! Look! Do you not feel and see it? Do I alone hear this melody so wondrously and gently sounding from within him, in bliss lamenting, all-expressing, gently reconciling, piercing me,
soaring aloft, its sweet echoes resounding about me? Are they gentle aerial waves ringing out clearly, surging around me? Are they billows of blissful fragrance? As they seethe and roar about me, shall I breathe, shall I give ear? Shall I drink of them, plunge beneath them? Breathe my life away in sweet scents? In the heaving swell, in the resounding echoes, in the universal stream of the world- breath -to drown, to founder - unconscious - utmost rapture!