Roland Schwab on his Bayreuth "Tristan": A commitment to beauty

Created: 05/28/2022, 07:30

By: Markus Thiel

“There are no higher goals”: ​​Roland Schwab stages Wagner's “Tristan and Isolde” for Bayreuth;

The premiere is at the opening of the festival on July 25th.

© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa

Nobody expected this staging of "Tristan and Isolde" - least of all the director Roland Schwab.

Shortly before the Bayreuth Festival this summer, a new “Ring des Nibelungen” will be released, and the ultimate love drama will open with a premiere.

Schwab was chosen for this, who grew up in Munich, assisted Ruth Berghaus, Götz Friedrich and Harry Kupfer, among others, and who has established himself in the opera scene with some unusual, visually powerful evenings.

Completely surprisingly, you received the offer in December.

Do you still think about a piece like this beforehand and are you a bit prepared?

no

The machine only starts with the request.

Although I admit: You don't create from nothing.

I've seen various "Tristan" productions and like to expose myself to comparisons.

For me, the Hamburg production by Ruth Berghaus with the young Christian Thielemann on the podium was a great moment.

By then I had reached this state that I would like to experience in operas: take off in the audience chair and fly into the piece.

At the end there is the "love death" to a beguiling, intoxicating music: Does the piece have a good or bad ending?

"Going out well" has something of a happy ending and therefore too few dimensions.

Anyone who is supposed to die in this play dies.

But the thoughts keep flying.

I always like states of limbo that elude clarity.

It doesn't end with death, the longing continues to vibrate.

Tristan dies, but Isolde will not die.

The state in which it will continue to exist remains an open question.

"You see, friends": That's what she addresses to us.

She wants all eyes on the future, on a better world.

It widens the lens again very large.

That flows from every pore of the music.

Can you start directing at a different level in Bayreuth because there are only experts in the audience?

The primary task must always be the work itself.

Of course I know the Bayreuth reception history.

And I think it's good that you can provide a contrast with this "Tristan".

I have great appreciation for the previous solutions by Christoph Marthaler and Katharina Wagner.

But I don't want to push the disillusionment in this radicalism any further.

This not only affects Bayreuth, but the context of our time in general.

After everything we've been going through for a number of years - our current days provide an additional sensorium for the apocalypse - we can allow the viewer to yearn again.

The longings have to be discussed again.

The evening should also be a commitment to beauty.

How can you win over veteran Wagner singers for a new production so that they don't slip into routine?

I can probably give a Tristan singer Stephen Gould little in terms of subtext that he hasn't already heard somewhere.

But the difference comes solely from the stage design, from the new setting.

This creates different atmospheres and requires different movements.

Even my directing, which tries to correspond to this singular music and its art of transition, could be against the habit.

However, there is also such a thing as positive routine: an experience to build on.

I like to use this for the journey to "Tristan", this very own, distant planet.

Hardly any other plants have managed to get close to it.

To put it bluntly, "Tristan" is a symphony with voices.

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So you have to leave the singers alone?

No!

What I mean: "Tristan" is primarily staged through the music.

And how to live up to it is an insane challenge.

A work like "The Ring of the Nibelung" is robust, it effortlessly carries many directing ideas.

"Tristan" on the other hand is pretty much self sufficient. Just pop in a CD and listen and you might even have the ultimate experience, live performances are in danger of offering only a diminished experience of it.

So the question is: What can I add to this perfection?

You have to let the music breathe on stage, give it space.

let them transcend.

For me, that doesn't mean withdrawal, but: the fine art of dosage.

And in every bar.

And different in every bar.

The staging is a vehicle for the music.

Does it even make your job easier because you were hired on such short notice?

That's right: You can't make yourself crazy with perhaps years of doubt.

My experience with such compressed productions was that they were never worse than others.

Perhaps Katharina Wagner has heard that I like this and that I deal well with such extreme challenges.

All in all, this commitment was not entirely unsportsmanlike: Parallel to my production of Puccini's "Il Trittico" at the Aalto Theater in Essen, there was always a late evening shift for "Tristan".

But what could be nicer than dealing with such works!

When you, as a declared Wagnerian, stage “Tristan” in Bayreuth – what is to come after that?

I have to repress this question a bit.

There are no higher goals.

Bayreuth was always a very late destination in my life plans.

It comes ten years earlier than I thought: I always saved Wagner, my favorite composer.

And that for special stages and venues.

For example my first "Lohengrin": The 40 meter wide stage of the Felsenreitschule was such a worthy place - nothing had to be compressed.

So also only produce each Wagner piece once?

I would like to handle it that way.

For me, in the uniqueness lies the respect for the composer, who for me is the cantus firmus of my life.

The interview was conducted by Markus Thiel.