It all begins at sea: The knight Tristan takes the Irish princess Isolde as an unwilling bride to his uncle, the king of the victorious power Cornwall. Humiliated and tormented by unspeakable feelings for each other, a death potion is supposed to end both of their lives before the ship docks in Cornwall. But unknowingly, instead of the poison, they take a love potion that changes everything: Tristan and Isolde plunge into an unstoppable affair that consumes their entire existence. The insatiable desire for each other leads to an obsessive longing for death in a mutual love death.

Tristan and Isolde

Staatstheater Darmstadt

On February 2nd, Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan and Isolde" will have its premiere at the Darmstadt State Theater. And on January 12th, there will be a small foretaste of Wagner's great love drama, which premiered in 1865 and is an exceptional, sensual and captivating work of opera literature. The composer adapted the medieval Tristan epic and created music that brings the all-consuming longing of the two title characters far more to the fore than any other opera before.

Tristan and Isolde preview at the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt

A trail of violence runs through the cursed dynasty of the Atrides long before this opera begins: Elektra's grandfather fed his own sons to his brother, her father Agamemnon sacrificed Elektra's sister Iphigenia, the desperate mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisth slaughtered Agamemnon with an axe in the bath. The children cannot find peace either: Elektra cannot mourn, desperate and raw, she dwells on her hatred. Like must be repaid in kind, the murderous mother and her lover must die. While her sister Chrysotemis refuses to join her, her brother Orest is to take vengeance for their beloved father: The next generation picks up the axe...

Magdalena Anna Hofmann

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 7 - Jun 4, 2026

Elektra · Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Past events

Feb 2 - May 4, 2025

Tristan and Isolde · Staatstheater Darmstadt

Jan 12, 2025

Tristan and Isolde preview at the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt · Staatstheater Darmstadt

Future and recently performed repertoire

Isolde in Tristan and Isolde by Wagner

Staatstheater Darmstadt

Elektra in Elektra by Strauss

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

About

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