AllMovie

The Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu produced and performed Richard Wagner's most celebrated and impassioned operatic work, the 1865 Tristan and Isolde, with John Treleaven as Tristan and Deborah Polaski as Isolde. This release, Tristan und Isolde, features a filmed record of that live stage production, performed and sung in its original German. In the classic story - which became one of the foundational tales of courtly love for centuries - Isolde, the heiress to the Irish throne, accidentally offers the knight Sir Tristan a love potion while attempting to serve him a poison that will kill both of them, setting the stage for an impassioned romance between them. Bertrand de Billy handles the musical direction, Alfred Kirchner the stage direction.