Tristan and Isolde

My friend João Pedro Garcia, who is a devout opera buff and spends his weekends travelling the world to catch the very best performances, invited me and my wife, as a wedding present, to join him in Milan for Tristan and Isolde, with Daniel Barenboim in the podium and "mise en scène" by Patrice Chéreau. I, who like to spend my weekends at home, had often wondered how he could withstand the strain of so much travelling after a hard workweek. Now I think I understand a little better. Opera at this level is consoling, overwhelming, elating - I am short of adverbs for describing the deep emotional and artistic satisfaction I took in this show. For hours, I sat entranced, watching the slow build up of each act to its powerful climax, sometimes moved to tears by the drama. Everything fell together, the music and the action fused in a seamless whole, just as Wagner had intended it. This is, indeed, the only way to enjoy Wagner: in the theater. And as I left La Scala, it occurred to me that never since the Greeks invented the tragedy had anything been created for the stage  with the same capacity to move an audience as a Wagner opera.