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Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Sellars and Bill Viola’s Tristan und Isolde at Helsinki Festival

Helsinki Festival will be bringing Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde to Helsinki’s new Music Centre on 18 and 21 August 2012. This truly unique and sumptuously visual production of the classic work, a collaboration between conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, director Peter Sellars and video artist Bill Viola, will expand beyond the confines of the stage to take over the entire concert hall. Salonen will be conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and joined by an impressive roster of soloists, including Gary Lehman, Violeta Urmana, Matti Salminen and Jukka Rasilainen. Tickets will go on sale through Lippupalvelu on 15 December 2011 at 9 am.

Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is widely acknowledged to be one of the most significant works in musical history. The Helsinki Festival production draws on the possibilities afforded by media art and set design to bring new perspectives to this much-performed classic. The American video art pioneer Bill Viola’s breathtaking images will be projected onto an 11-metre screen. Viola’s videos breathe with the rhythm of the music. Directed by the highly acclaimed Peter Sellars, the performers move across the concert hall, creating a powerful three-dimensional effect.

”We have succeeded in securing a genuine first-class ensemble, a real dream team for this production and the Helsinki performances in particular. What’s more, Esa-Pekka Salonen will be making his debut performance at the new Helsinki Music Centre,” commented Helsinki Festival Director Erik Söderblom.

Salonen, Sellars and Viola’s Tristan project was first performed in Los Angeles in 2004 and has since played in major cities across the world, including Paris, London, Tokyo and New York City.

www.helsinkifestival.fi

Comments

Anonymous said…
I saw this production in Paris some years ago and can't think of anything more boring. Sellars direction was very static, Bill Violas pictures were banal and kitsch and Salonens conducting cold and unengaged. But Waltraud Meier as Isolde was gorgeous as usual!

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