Financial Times, Richard Fairman, 9th August 2009, Five Stars
‘Kampe is a marvellously engaging performer and her lyrically sung Isolde comes straight from the heart. Kerl husbands his resources skilfully and aspires to musical eloquence throughout Tristan’s exhausting ravings in the last act. They are well supported by Sarah Connolly, who has found her métier as Brangäne, a sturdy Kurwenal in Andrzej Dobber, and the beautifully sung King Marke of Georg Zeppenfeld.’
‘… the result is a young person’s performance, brimming over with passion and energy.’
‘Above all, Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra have unlocked the door to the world of seething emotions within Wagner’s music. The attention to detail and scrupulous balance that Jurowski and his orchestra invariably achieve these days were expected but, by the final act, he had gone further, igniting a blistering intensity that threatened to send Glyndebourne’s elegant wooden interior up in flames. With music-making such as this coming out of the pit, nothing is beyond Glyndebourne at the moment.’
The Daily Telegraph, Rupert Christiansen, 7th August, 4 Stars
‘A pretty fabulous revival of Glyndebourne’s 2003 production.’
‘Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s exceptionally beautiful staging, magically lit by Robin Carter, offers an interpretation visually similar to the one made fashionable by Wieland Wagner in the Fifties: pseudo-medieval costumes, minimal props and an abstract setting symbolising the vortex of emotion which consumes the guilty lovers.’
‘Yet both Anja Kampe and Torsten Kerl sang wonderfully in their first attempts at the title-roles. Kampe’s Isolde was vivid in response to the text, brilliant in tone and firmly pitched. The first-act narration and curse were electrifying, and her second-act raptures subtly modulated.’
‘Sarah Connolly substituted for an ailing Kristine Jepson as Brangäne – her debut too, though you would never have known it from her gloriously confident and expressive singing.’
‘The final newcomer to the opera was Vladimir Jurowski, conducting a London Philharmonic Orchestra on absolutely stupendous form. For the first two acts, tempi were immaculately measured and his care for detail precise. Then came Act 3, and Jurowski thrillingly surrendered to some of the most intoxicatingly powerful music ever penned by man.’
The Evening Standard, Barry Millington, 10th August 2009, five stars
‘A triumphant success, the production returns as strongly cast as ever and in one respect improved yet further.’
‘What Jurowski brings to the score … is a vibrant, nerve-tingling response to the welter of emotions that characterises the work. Every phrase is alive with the surge of sexual energy, the ebb and flow of passion but Jurowski builds these inflections with unerring skill into the larger paragraphs that make up Wagner’s acts.’
‘As Isolde, Anja Kampe more than fulfils her promise as a rising Wagnerian star, prioritising subtleties of line and colour over sheer volume.’
‘Sarah Connolly makes a more forceful impression than usual in the role of Brangaene, engaging in spirited dialogue with her mistress, Isolde. It’s a very fine performance indeed, as is that of George Zeppenfeld as King Mark, making every phrase of his famously protracted Act 2 reproach count.’
‘Musical, visual and dramatic values complement each other here on the highest level. All in all a tremendous achievement.’
The Independent, Edward Seckerson, 7th August 2009
‘…Anja Kampe's Isolde did that rare thing of channelling the energy of her anger and pride into rapture… her ardour is unequivocally thrilling and touching by turns.’
‘The Wieland Wagner-like stylisations of Lehnhoff's staging (revived here by Daniel Dooner) drench us in colour and light as surely as Wagner’s radical harmony. The final image of Isolde floating, shimmering freely in disembodied space is as close to an image of Nirvana as you’ll likely get in the theatre.’
The Observer, Fiona Maddocks, 9th August 2009
‘Music director Vladimir Jurowski approached his first Tristan und Isolde with the cool focus of a controlled explosion.’
‘Tristan, in a revival of Nikolaus Lehnhoff's peerless 2003 production, can be dispatched swiftly: the staging, with its fixed-set vortex trebling as world omphalos, seafaring skiff and shuttered prison of the mind, remains one of Glyndebourne's finest achievements.’
‘The prominently German cast is superb. Torsten Kerl and Anja Kampe, stars of Fidelio here in 2006, played the suffering lovers. The Italian-German Kampe, resonant, forceful, pinging the centre of every note, never squally, always lyrical, was an impeccable, restrained but generous Isolde.’
‘She was matched by Sarah Connolly as the agonised Brangäne, Andrzej Dobber's ardent Kurwenal and, especially, Georg Zeppenfeld's tragically majestic King Mark.’
‘As for Jurowski, this was proof - hardly now required - of his infinitely detailed preparation, reflected in every nuance and layer of the score. Ebb and flow was securely judged with never a note out of place. From icy hush to thunderous tumult, the London Philharmonic played with exciting commitment.’
The Guardian, Andrew Clements, 7th August
‘Kampe's singing has wonderful musicality that invests every phrase with character and real weight of meaning, no easy task in such a long and demanding role.’
‘With Sarah Connolly as a wonderfully eloquent Brangäne, Andrzej Dobber as an unstinting Kurwenal, and Georg Zeppenfeld playing King Mark with grave, fathomless beauty of tone, most of the performances have the musical presence this dramatic setting demands.’
The Times, Geoff Brown, 12th August 2009, 4 stars
‘…you need to see the staging live and whole, with Lehnhoff’s sculptural groupings standing and delivering, half human beings, half archetypes, while Robin Carter’s brilliant lighting X-rays their souls and Wagner’s chromatic beauties of pain and ecstasy endlessly curl around them.’
Going to Glyndebourne for this third revival is especially worthwhile, for this is the first Tristan of the conductor Vladimir Jurowski…He views it as a love story, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra oblige with a range of dark burnished colours that would make any interior decorator proud.'
‘Anja Kampe is a ringing success in her first stage Isolde; we were enamoured even without a love potion, powerless before that emotionally vibrant soprano voice.’
‘Sarah Connolly is a marvel of anguished concern as her maidservant Brangäne.’