Act I Tristan und Isolde
The Prelude…
This remarkable 11 minute instrumental journey encapsulates the entire opera. It is the spell itself, a love potion spun in a continuous set of variations on the Tristan progression. It also changed the course of music history with harmonic progressions that defied resolution, becoming a harbinger for the modern revolution 50 years later that would challenge the notion of tonality altogether.
We hear this glorious sigh whenever Tristan and Isolde feel or recount the moment of falling in love. It is another variant of the Tristan progression, this time with what seems like a resolution, but in fact is a deceptive cadence (to F major).
A stunning variant of the progression begins right after we hear the first V-I (tonic-dominant) resolution in the piece— a resolution to A major, the “hidden” tonic we have been hungering for. But it instantly transforms into yet another unstable Tristan chord (half-diminished seventh). That triggers a wave of descending 5th progressions (A to D# to G# to C# to F#), all under a melody that represents the supreme joy of the lovers. The progressions falls to E major, but, of course, never arrives.
How to create a climax that never resolves? That is extraordinary about this climax of the Prelude. As the the brass keep trying to push upward with the Tristan motive, the harmony rocks back and forth between the Tristan chord and a dominant seventh chord a fifth beneath it. This would resolve the progression a tritone farther than the A minor we’ve been expecting (E flat minor). But that resolution is also denied. Instead the high point comes on the Tristan chord itself. And then the texture disintegrates back to the original yearning progression. This is how Wagner creates a harmonic “addiction” in us to want to hear it over and over.
ACT I
The back story—Tristan’s ship sails to Cornwall with Isolde who is to wed Tristan’s liege King Marke. Isolde is a banshee of rage. It takes the whole act for her to fully reveal the complex reasons behind her pain and anger amidst a jigsaw of memory. She had healed a wounded Tristan not knowing he himself had slain the Irish knight she was to marry. When she discovered Tristan’s true identity, she raised a sword to slay him, but gazed in his eyes and dropped the sword. He healed and returned to Cornwall, publicly arranging her betrothal to his king to unite Ireland and Cornwall. She agreed publicly, but is seething as the ship carries them all to Cornwall. She feels betrayed that he initially deceived her, that he killed her betrothed, that Ireland was brought to shame. All this of course is a cloak over her secret attraction to Tristan. She plans vengeance to poison him and commit suicide herself. I include a few examples here:
Scene 1
The first voice we hear after the Prelude is the mocking sailor’s song. Beginning with a solo piece will be mirrored in the third act with its magnificent English horn solo.
Lamenting her sorcery is not equal to her mother’s, Isolde wishes she could to conjure a storm to wreck the ship. The Tristan progression fuels her desire to cast this spell. Indeed, we’ll be hearing the progression whenever there is talk of a spell or the love potion.
Scene 2
Isolde hints to her servant Bragäne about the reason for her wrath. She hints at it with the words:
Chosen for me, lost to me
The Tristan progression that accompanies her words again tells and foretells the entire story.
Scene 3
Isolde tells Brangaene what has really happened and why she is so upset.
She describes healing the wounded knight Tantris, without knowing he had slain her betrothed. The Healing motif underlies this whole section.
The Love Realization accompanies Isolde describing how when she discovered Tristan’s true identity, she looked into his eyes and suddenly dropped her sword, unable to slay him!
The melodic Tristan melody reverses direction, going downwards as Isolde screams for vengeance against Tristan.
Scene 5
Isolde is finally able to confront Tristan with what she considers his betrayal of her. She insists on a drink of reconciliation, a drink she believes is poison. It becomes clear that Tristan himself realizes he is being offered poison. But Brangäne defied Isolde and instead prepared the love potion. Tristan and Isolde both drink The spell works its magic. We hear the Love Theme from the prelude punctuated by both of them saying each other’s name.
This entire first act is a “revealing.” Revealing how the Tristan progression and its variants specifically relate to the operatic events and ideas. As with memory, there is no real beginning and end. They occur and reoccur—eternally—creating the musical fabric for the entire opera.