#Tristan und Isolde

[hjtart]

isolde 🌊

[too-antigonish]

A Bit on Music in Endeavour

A favorite musical moment in Endeavour is at around 04min45s in Scherzo (S8E2) where you hear Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of Tristan und Isolde. Morse has it going on his record player while he dresses for work. We’ve just come off of the first episode of S8 and we’ve seen the degree to which he is starting to fall apart. He’s a mess really. Perfect time for some Wagner.

If you don’t know about Wagner, he was a horrible human being, but an innovative composer. Tristan und Isolde, in particular, is considered a real turning point in composition because of its very intentional use of dissonance. It’s so significant, in fact, that the very first chord you hear in this piece is actually referred to as the “Tristan chord”—one of only about a dozen or so “named” chords in the western musical canon. 

The chord just…aches. There’s a really intense urge to hear it move on to its harmonic resolution. You want it to get better!

And this particular prelude is at the beginning of Act III, so if you know the opera, you start to picture it in your mind…

…As Act III opens, Tristan is lies mortally wounded. His faithful servant waits for the arrival of Isolde, the only one who has the power to heal Tristan. A shepherd lad has been instructed to signal the servant by playing a tune on his pipes when the ship carrying Isolde is sighted. They wait, listening. Surely help will arrive in time to save the dying man…

Nope. It’s Gwen. 

Another favorite is in Neverland at about 15min. Monica and Morse are in a cozy, domestic scene. He’s doing the crossword. She’s darning a sock. She asks if he’s happy and somewhere along the line you realize that they’re listening to the beginning of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (basically a musical retelling of the crucifixion). By the first time I saw that episode, I’d learned enough about how they used music in the series to guess that things were about to go very, very wrong. There actually was going to be a crucifixion of sorts.

There are so many instances where they use music (both classical—and if you you are lucky enough to be watching the UK versions—popular as well) to either foreshadow or pull a bait-and-switch or to reference another work or otherwise give a scene additional layers of meaning.

It’s just beautifully done—but it’s also done gently. It’s done in such a way that those not “in the know” aren’t left on the outside. There’s nothing crucial that you’re going to miss out on, but at the same time it’s great fun when you see it.

[opera-ghosts]

The magnificent Italian dramatic soprano Giuseppina Cobelli as Isolde.

She was legendary Sieglinde, Isotta, Eboli, and more.

Cobelli (1 August 1898 - 10 August 1948) was described as a beautiful woman with a highly individual voice and dramatic temperament. Her soprano career abruptly finished when she was conditioned by deafness in 1932, she is remembered for being the only artist to perform on stage equipped with a hearing aid. Although she has become a forgotten opera star who passed away at the age of 50, Cobelli sang with the greatest tenors of her time, Fleta, Thill, Pertile, Gigli, Ruffo and under Toscanini, de Sabata, Serafin or Klemperer at the top Opera theatres all over the world.

[skeppsbrott]

Isolde by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), printed poster

Via Bukowskis:

In the tales of King Arthur, the knight Tristan and the Irish princess Isolde were bound together by a love potion, with ultimately tragic results. Although Beardsley illustrated Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, a version of the medieval legend first published in the 15th century, the reference in this drawing is more likely to Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, which was performed frequently in the 1890s.

Most of Beardsley’s drawings were made for illustration: Isolde was reproduced as a color lithograph in the periodical The Studio in 1895.

[sixty-silver-wishes]

so in my arthurian literature class a few years ago, we read gottfried von strassburg’s tristan and isolde, and I can’t stop thinking about how FUNNY it is

a list of dumb things that happen in gottfried von strassburg’s tristan and isolde:

tristan manages to sneak into ireland calling himself "tantris," and somehow fools isolde and the queen (also named isolde; there are three people named isolde in the whole book) and the only way isolde finds out it's him is because she's able to match his sword with the wound in her uncle's skull, and not, you know, because tristan just switched the two syllables in his name around. she spends a whole paragraph trying to figure this out

tristan can speak five different languages and the best thing he can come up with is fucking tantris

isolde and her mother are supposed to be like super advanced healers but they somehow can’t immediately figure this out

one of tristan’s skills is being a really good liar. but no we got TANTRIS. do you see why I’m mad about this

this whole story started in the first place because tristan got abducted by norwegian pirates while playing chess on a boat, and he doesn't even notice he's been kidnapped at first

a whole two pages on how to skin a deer carcass, as well as extensive etymology for obscure hunting terms

tristan saying he's not good at playing the harp, only for his epic harp playing to be described in lengthy detail

tristan being depressed until he meets his friend's dog, then wanting to get the dog for isolde, then going on a huge side quest where he fights a giant so his friend will give him the dog

the whole love triangle where tristan has to choose between isolde and someone else also named isolde with basically the same personality

in the wagner opera adaptation, brangane deliberately switches the love and death potions. meanwhile in gottfried’s source text, she literally just forgets she was supposed to deliver a love potion so isolde and mark could drink it, mistakes it for wine, and gives it to tristan and isolde

tristan and isolde spend the entire journey to cornwall having sex

the whole sideplot where marjadoc and melot are trying to catch tristan and isolde having an affair so they dump flour all over the ground

there’s a dragon for some reason

in conclusion, you can guess why I was so disappointed when I watched the wagner opera

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

HELLO???????????

[muchadoabout]

This is a case study assignment from my Business Law Professor...

I...

[lives-in-a-harpsichord]

Tristan and Isolde!

[ofgreatart]

Love duet - Patti Smith: ‘Put on Tristan and Isolde, real loud, and sit and listen to it.’

“Is it possible to say, on Earth, in daylight, Tristan AND Isolde, without triggering a catastrophe?” - P. Godefroid

“Is it possible to link two names in this way without arousing misfortune, without challenging the foundations of a society? Is it possible to be saved when one desires this AND? The answer will come in Parsifal.” - Philippe Godefroid

Video: Tristan: Siegfried Jerusalem Isolde: Waltraud Meier Bayreuth, Daniel Barenboïm 1995

[leporellian]

this might come as a shock to you all, coming from me, but i truly believe opera is the media ever

[coffincoitus]

tristan und isolde / iwtv (2022)

[srndpt2024]

[opera-ghosts]

ONCE UPON A TIME: “Tristan and Isolde”, Cologne Opera Festival on June 11, 1911. The wonderful scene photo from the second act shows the American Edyth Walker (1867-1950) as Isolde. Jacques Urlus sang Tristan, Paul Bender sang King Marke and Margarete Matzenauer sang Brangäne. Max von Schillings conducted. The production was done by Alexander d’Arnals and the set was created by Hans Wildermann.

[ladyjuquia]

Eating my Tristan Cake, while enjoying my Tristan Tea, using my beautiful Tristan Tea Service 💕

All Products on this Pic (Tea Set, Cake and Tea) are based on the „Tristan & Isolde“ Opera by Richard Wagner. It’s a Tristan Tea Party in my Tristan Room! <3

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More Informations:

One of the great things with having favourites in F/GO is that you can always collect things from their original Lore outside of F/GO if there isn’t enough Merch about them (of course debatable if Tristan as lots or not but I can never have enough, haha). Being able to live out my love for Tristan so much makes me the happiest.

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

❥ The Tea Service is from the Rosenthal GmbH. It’s the Isolde Service with the Tristan Decor, this Set is from around 1920. Since it’s one of the older Sets it’s hard to get them. You can see that it belongs to this series by the writing at the bottom of the tableware. So far I only have the Tea Pot, the Tea Cups and a Plate. I hope one day I get the whole Set of course!

• ₊°✧︡ ˗ ˏ ˋ ♡ ˎˊ ˗ ꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ

❥ The Cake is from the „Konditorei Bayern“, a bakery located in Hiroshima, Japan. Besides regular cakes they also offer the special „King Ludwig II. Of Bavaria“ Cake and the Cakes based on Richard Wagner’s Opera „Tristan & Isolde“. So we have cakes for the several characters!

You can visit there page 𝓗𝓮𝓻𝓮:

• ₊°✧︡ ˗ ˏ ˋ ♡ ˎˊ ˗ ꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ

❥ The Tea is also based on Richard Wagner’s Opera „Tristan & Isolde“. This is made by the Shop „Teekultur Bayreuth“, located in Bayreuth, Germany. While they have a Website under the same name as the shop, the Tea to buy you can find 𝓗𝓮𝓻𝓮

Of course they also have other Wagner Opera based Tea's, for example they also offer a Parsifal or Götterdämmerung Tea!

[jpechacek]

tristan und isolde