Guido Martin-Brandis

Tristan und Isolde, August 2025

Shatterbrain Production / Regents Opera, The Arcola Theatre, Grimeborn Festival

This sold out run of Tristan und Isolde was one of only two happening in the world during the Summer of 2025 (the other was at Bayreuth!). Lighting and colour was carefully used to explore the symbolism of the piece, so that these resonated and echoed through the three acts. I was also very interested to explore the place of myth making and ritual, and the psychology of the characters and their self reflection and introspection, not just with the acting, but with the lighting and set, with repeated gestures, mirrors, shadows, and water becoming important element in this, and how these all integrate in the massive personal revelations of Isolde’s final Liebestod. The set was composed of only a few elements that transformed between the acts, so that each item attained a history of its own - the sails on Tristan ship for instance (symbol of his power and adventurousness) transformed into the veiled bower of his love making as he casts off his previous identity and hides from the court, and then finally become the bandages he drags about him in Act 3, as the inescapable weight of his history mires him in a spiral of suffering. I also aimed to tell the complex central story as clearly as possible, so that it would be as direct, gripping, and immediately perceivable for anybody who had never seen or thought about the piece before.

Director: Guido Martin-Brandis; Designer: Caitlin Abbott; Lighting Designer: David Cunningham

Tristan - Brian Smith Walters

Isolde - Elizabeth Findon / Becca Marriott

Brangäne - Lauren Easton

Kurwenal - Oliver Gibbs

Marke - Simon Wilding

Young Sailor/Melot/Morolde/Shepherd - David Horton

Cover Tristan/Steuermann - Robin Whitehouse

Conductor: Michael Thrift