'As I have never truly experienced the happiness of love in my life,' Richard Wagner wrote to Franz Liszt in December 1854, 'I would like to erect a monument to this most beautiful of all dreams, a work in which this love can be expressed to the full.' At the time, he was writing the first outlines of Tristan und Isolde. Wagner conceived his opera as an extended dialogue between two lovers, Tristan of Cornwall and Isolde, an Irish princess who had been married off to King Marke. Tristan und Isolde is Wagner's hymn to love and death, and in his harmonies, melodies, and aesthetics he resolutely explored new directions. Ralf Pleger, a prize-winning director of innovative musical films, is aiming for an immersion in the Wagnerian combination of words and music in partnership with the visual artist Alexander Polzin. Their approach allows Alain Altinoglu every opportunity to let the cosmic dimension of the score ring out clearly.
