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With a libretto (in German) by the composer, based on ancient legends.
Characters:
KING MARK OF CORNWALL (bass)
TRISTAN, his nephew (tenor)
KURVENAL, squire of Tristan (baritone)
IZOLDA, Irish princess (soprano)
BRANGENA, Isolde's maid (mezzo-soprano)
MELOT, King's Courtier (tenor)
YOUNG SAILOR (tenor)
HELMMAN (baritone)
SHEPHERD (tenor)
Time period: the legendary times of King Arthur.
Setting: Cornwall, Brittany and the sea.
First performance: Munich, Court Theatre, 10 June 1865.
It is generally accepted - and with good reason - that Tristan and Isolde is the greatest hymn ever written in praise of pure erotic love. The history of the creation of this opera is closely connected with this passion. Almost the entire time that Wagner was writing Tristan and Isolde, he lived in the house of a wealthy Zurich silk merchant, Otto Wesendonck; Wagner was in love with the owner's young wife, Matilda. Later, when the opera was written, at least twenty-four rehearsals were held for its production at the Vienna Court Opera, but the production was eventually cancelled. The reason, perhaps, was that it was too difficult and a new style for the troupe - at least that was officially stated. However, love and politics (two great driving forces in Wagner's life) also played an important role in this development. Two camps formed in the troupe: pro-Wagner and anti-Wagner. The first was led by the soprano assigned to the role of Isolde - Louise Dustman Meyer. She, however, withdrew her assistance in staging the opera when she learned of Wagner's affair with her younger sister.
Even before the Vienna Court Opera undertook to stage Tristan and Isolde, Wagner had made attempts to have the opera performed in Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Paris, Weimar, Prague, Hanover and even in Rio de Janeiro, where it was to be performed in Italian ! None of these attempts were successful: the opera was never staged anywhere, mainly for political reasons. Finally, six years after work on the opera was completed, the premiere finally took place. It was carried out under the patronage of Wagner's great, albeit extremely unbalanced and impulsive, friend, King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
The conductor of the premiere was Hans von Bülow, an ardent promoter of Wagnerian music. Two months before the premiere, Frau von Bülow gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Isolde. It is very likely that at that time the conductor did not yet know that the composer, in addition to being the girl’s godfather, was also her real father. In fact, Cosima von Bülow (the illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt) bore Richard Wagner three children before Hans eventually divorced her and she married the composer.
There is no need to look for a reflection in the opera of Wagner’s many own love passions for other people’s wives - the love of Tristan and Isolde is much more idealized and pure than any page of the composer’s shocking biography. At its heart it is a very simple tale, and the score, perhaps more than any other Wagner composed, drives home his theory of what musical drama (as opposed to traditional "opera") should be. Wagner refuses to clearly divide action into a sequence of numbers. In this opera, the world was first introduced to musical drama, in which the orchestra undoubtedly plays a leading role, commenting through a developed system of leitmotifs on every psychological and dramatic move in the development of the plot. Here Wagner realized his idea of “endless melody”, creating a completely special style of arias, duets, quartets, with which everyone has since been familiar. This caused a fierce war of critics that has not subsided to this day.
INTRODUCTION
Wagner also refused to clearly define the tonality in which the music sounds here. The initial key designation indicates that the introduction is written in C major (or A minor); it begins with a fragment of melody that could also be considered F major (or D minor), and before the second bar ends we arrive at the dominant seventh chord of A major. At this point, we are also presented with two of the main motifs of the work, so intimately dissolving into each other that some commentators call them, respectively, “Tristan” and “Isold” motifs.
This is where I will end my musical and technical comments. This introduction, as everyone knows, is one of the most expressive, sensual and moving sound poems about love that has ever been written.
ACT I
Isolde is an Irish princess, the daughter of a famous sorceress, she perfectly knows poisons, drugs and the medieval art of healing. When the curtain rises we find her on the ship. She is being taken, against her will, to marry King Mark of Cornwall. The man taking her to Cornwall, the ship's captain, is Tristan, King Mark's nephew. Isolde, in a long story full of indignation, explains to the maid Brangene the reason for her anger. From this account it becomes clear that Isolde had a suitor named Morold, whom Tristan challenged to a fight to decide in a duel whether Cornwall would continue to pay tribute to Ireland. As a result, Tristan won. But he himself was wounded. Disguised as a harpist, he came to Isolde's castle. Isolde, mastering the art of healing, healed him and restored his life, considering him a harpist named Tantris, as he called himself. But one day, on the sword that belonged to the wounded man, she discovered a notch that was exactly the same shape as the piece of steel found in the severed head of Morold, which the Cornish had recently sent to Ireland. This is how she found out who this harpist really was. She was ready to kill Tristan and had already raised her sword over him, but he looked into her eyes so soulfully that passionate love for him flared up in her. But now, on the orders of his uncle, he is taking her to marry him. No wonder she is indignant!
Isolde sends for Tristan, but he, unable to leave the captain's bridge, sends his squire Kurvenal in his place. Kurvenal, this uncouth and rude baritone (at the same time truly devoted to Tristan), very unceremoniously informs Isolde that Tristan will not come, and together with the rowers sings a mocking ballad about Tristan's victory over Morold. This completely infuriates Isolde, and she decides to kill Tristan and herself rather than marry Mark, whom she, by the way, has never seen. She orders Brangene to prepare a poisonous potion and again calls upon Tristan, declaring that she refuses to go ashore unless he comes to her. This time he appears because the ship is about to land on the shore. She reminds him with sharp reproach that he killed her fiancé. Tristan, in atonement for his guilt, offers her his sword so that she can kill him. Instead, Isolde offers him a drink. Tristan accepts the cup, not doubting that it contains poison. But Brangena, without telling Isolde anything, replaced the poison with a love potion. Tristan drinks the cup halfway in one gulp, and then Isolde snatches it from him and finishes the cup in order to die with him. But the result turns out to be completely unexpected. They look into each other's eyes for a very long time (the music from the introduction is playing in the orchestra at this time). And suddenly, as if maddened, they rush into each other’s arms, uttering ecstatic words of delight.
But suddenly the joyful singing of sailors is heard - the shore appears on the horizon. Kurvenal runs in and reports that a wedding procession led by King Mark is approaching. The lovers come out to meet him, completely unprepared to meet the king.
ACT II
The orchestral introduction conveys Isolde's excitement. The curtain rises and we see the garden in front of King Mark's castle. Isolde's rooms open here. (Whether or not Isolde’s wedding ceremony with King Mark took place between the first and second acts, Wagner does not clarify in any way; it is enough that Isolde considers herself - and so does everyone else - the king’s bride). The king goes hunting, and at the very beginning of this action we hear the sound of a hunting horn off stage. But while the king is hunting, Tristan and Isolde plan to meet secretly. A torch is burning on the castle wall. When it goes out, it will be a sign for Tristan to come to the garden.
Brangena, Isolde's servant, fears a conspiracy on the part of the king. She is convinced that Melot, a Cornish knight considered Tristan's best friend, will betray them. She advises Isolde not to extinguish the torch and thereby not give a sign to Tristan to come to her while the sounds of the hunting horn are still heard and the king and his retinue are close. But Isolde is burning with impatience. She refuses to believe that Melot could be so treacherous. She blows out the torch, climbs a few steps and, illuminated by the bright light of the moon, waves her light scarf, giving Tristan another sign to come to her.
The orchestra expresses feverish excitement with sounds, and Tristan bursts onto the stage. “Beloved Isolde!” - he exclaims, and Isolde echoes him: “Beloved!” This is the beginning of a huge love duet known as "Liebesnacht" ("Night of Love"), a long, heartfelt, touching expression of love, its transformative power - love that prefers night to day ("Go down to earth the night of love"), love that prefers death of life (“And so we will die in order to live forever”). At the end of this duet they sing the famous and extraordinarily beautiful melody "Liebestod", and, just at the moment when the development leads to a climax, Brangena, who has been on the alert all this time, utters a piercing cry. The king and his retinue unexpectedly returned from a hunt. They were brought back by one who was considered Tristan's friend, Melot, who himself was burning with a secret love for Isolde and, thus, acting from the most reprehensible motives. The main feeling of the noble king is sadness, sadness that the honor of Tristan, his beloved nephew, is tarnished. He sings about this in a very long monologue; Isolde, deeply embarrassed, turns away.
At the end of King Mark's monologue, Tristan asks Isolde if she will follow him to the land where there is eternal night. She agrees. And then, in a short duel with Melot, Tristan, exposing his chest to him, deliberately opens himself to a blow. King Mark intervenes and pushes Melot away, preventing him from killing Tristan. The seriously wounded Tristan falls to the ground. Isolde falls on his chest.
ACT III
Tristan was transported to his castle in Brittany; this was done by his faithful squire Kurwenal. Here he lies, wounded and sick, in front of the castle. He is waiting for a ship - a ship that is carrying Isolde, who wants to sail to him to cure him. Behind the stage, a shepherd plays a very sad melody on his pipe. The sad melody, the fever of the disease, the tragedy of his life - all this together clouded the mind of poor Tristan. His mind wanders somewhere far away: he tells Kurvenal about the tragic fate of his parents, about the torment that tormented him. All these themes (and others as well) pass through his fevered mind as he lies here and Kurvenal tries - in vain - to ease his suffering.
Suddenly the shepherd played another melody. Now she sparkles in a major key. A ship appeared on the horizon. He then disappears, then appears again, finally lands, and a few moments later Isolde quickly goes ashore. She was almost too late to find her lover alive. In passionate excitement, he tears off his bandage and, bleeding, falls dead into the arms of Isolde. She sadly bends over the dead body.
Another ship approaches the shore. This is the ship of King Mark and his retinue. The villain Melot also sailed here with him. Mark has arrived to forgive the lovers, but Kurvenal does not know about this intention. He sees in the retinue only the enemies of his master. Devoted to Tristan, he enters into a duel with Melot and kills him. But he himself receives a mortal wound and falls, dying at the feet of his master. Then Isolde lifts Tristan's dead body. Transformed by her feelings, she sings "Liebestod" and at the end she herself takes her last breath. Mark blesses the deceased, and the opera ends with two quiet, long B flat major chords.
Henry W. Simon (translated by A. Maikapara)
Wagner often turns to landscapes, elements and images of nature. His penchant for natural symbolism gives rise to magnificent and downright grandiose paintings. From the Swiss mountains to the stormy northern seas, to the sun-drenched southern vegetation, everything attracted this man with the taste of a director and landscape painter, like some kind of sensual magnet, overgrown with various ideas, including abstract and mystical ones (in Parsifal, Christ giving up the ghost on cross, dies against the backdrop of awakening nature). In “Tristan and Isolde,” this poem about love, about feverish passion, the brainchild of blind fate, high and inexorable, the main character among the background characters is the sea, personifying superhuman passions and impulses. The sea covers with its restless waves the soul, shaken to the very depths by uncontrollable passions. The land does not show itself, while the sea of passion drags the listener from one storm to another. In rare moments, when it moderates its onslaught and calms down, painful memories emerge from the darkness of the night. “For the first time I breathe this unclouded, clean, sweet air... When in the evening I float in a gondola on the Lido, I hear around me the sound of trembling strings, reminding me of the gentle, long sounds of the violin, which I love so much and with which I once compared you; you can easily imagine how I feel in the moonlight, on the sea!” This is what Wagner wrote in one of his letters in 1858 from Venice to Matilda Luckmayer, the wife of the wealthy businessman Otto Wesendonck. The romantic relationship with Matilda, interrupted by Wagner’s flight to Venice, inspired the composer to write an opera about painful love, full of nostalgia for what was not only a thing of the past, but was not fully experienced and known, and from which feelings of unsatisfied desire and endless longing remained. . The libretto and music were written between August 1857 and August 1859; The premiere took place in Munich only in 1865 thanks to the support of Ludwig II of Bavaria. In Italy, the opera was first staged in 1888 in Bologna at the Teatro Comunale.
The biographical basis of the plot about lovers through the fault of a “magic drink” is layered with mystical and philosophical constructions. Such a carnal, sensual passion, elevated to an absolute, loses the character of sin or criminal pleasure (like any pleasure) in order to acquire the features of a cosmic law, according to which Tristan and Isolde love as gods, and not as people. Associated with this tension of passion is the use of an endless melody, an elusive, oscillating, meandering vocal and harmonic line that finds no support or shelter anywhere other than itself, and which has nothing but the impossibility of escaping from itself. "Child! this “Tristan” is becoming something terrible!.. I’m afraid that the opera will be banned. Unless a bad performance turns everything into a parody... Only a mediocre performance can save me, a completely good one can only drive the audience crazy - I can’t think otherwise ... This is what I've come to! Woe is me! And this is what I put the most passion into!" - Wagner wrote to the same Wesendonck. Flexible modulations and chromatic transitions, which due to their sharpness will become legendary, spread like an “infection" (to use Nietzsche’s word). In the sound whirlpool, traditional forms weaken, disintegrate, to be reunited in a narrative chain that represents a continuous series of conscious and unconscious states. On the surface of various rhythmic and melodic flows there are key themes: in addition to the themes of love and death, there are many others here, connecting fragments of a moving mosaic that depicts various manifestations of love feelings. Among the most characteristic: themes of recognition, longing, gaze, love drink, drink of death, magic vessel, liberation in death, the sea, characteristics of the various states of mind of Tristan, themes of the day, impatience, passion, love impulse, song of love, call to the night, theme of Mark's suffering, depiction of Kurwenal's states of mind, theme of encouragement of Brangena - during the duet of the second act (the largest vocal number in the entire history of the opera). These leitmotifs appear and disappear like reflections on the waves, their beauty is that they are recognizable even as they dissipate. Due to the wealth of different musical possibilities, these leitmotifs are short-lived, like other stylistic characteristics: musical ideas, consonances, dissonances, intervallic changes. And not so much because (as it will be in the tetralogy and in Parsifal) that the thematic fragment is ready to almost dissolve in a complex search for rational or intuitive meanings, but because of the passion, unusualness of feelings, striving to absorb all the remnants of logic and becoming a new logic, beyond time and space. While the orchestra is distinguished by unprecedented mobility, colored by a single, fiery-ash timbre and rather hints at an erotic theme than depicts it, in the vocal part preference is given to “short and humble calls” (as Franco Serpa writes so well). And only in the duet does the lyrical structure rise, and the majestic hymn of the night, with some concessions to sentimentality, sounds. The death of Isolde will require a final tribute from the orchestra in order to crown her posthumous marriage with a solid sound in which the voice of a musical instrument cannot be distinguished. This is how the final sacrifice is made - to the fear evoked in the soul of a selfish person by all beauty: too late, the good King Mark appeared with his wise word.
G. Marchesi (translated by E. Greceanii)
History of creation
The legend of Tristan and Isolde is of Celtic origin. It probably came from Ireland and enjoyed wide popularity in all countries of medieval Europe, spreading in many versions (its first literary adaptation - the Franco-Breton novel - dates back to the 12th century). Over the centuries, it has acquired various poetic details, but the meaning remains the same: love is stronger than death. Wagner interpreted this legend differently: he created a poem about a painful all-consuming passion, which is stronger than reason, a sense of duty, family obligations, which overturns the usual ideas, breaks ties with the outside world, with people, with life. In accordance with the composer's plan, the opera is marked by unity of dramatic expression, enormous tension, and tragic intensity of feelings.
Wagner loved Tristan very much and considered it his best composition. The creation of the opera is associated with one of the most romantic episodes of the composer's biography - with his passion for Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a friend and patron, who, despite her ardent love for Wagner, managed to subordinate her feelings to duty to her husband and family. Wagner called “Tristan” a monument to the deepest unrequited love. The autobiographical nature of this opera helps to understand the composer’s unusual interpretation of the literary source.
Wagner became acquainted with the legend of Tristan and Isolde back in the 40s; the idea for the opera arose in the fall of 1854 and completely captured the composer in August 1857, forcing him to interrupt work on the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”. The text was written in one impulse, in three weeks; Composing music began in October. The work was carried out with long interruptions; the opera was completed in 1859. The premiere took place on June 10, 1865 in Munich.
Music
"Tristan and Isolde" is the most original of Wagner's operas. There is little external action or stage movement in it - all attention is focused on the experiences of the two heroes, on showing the shades of their painful, tragic passion. Music, full of sensual languor, flows in a non-stop stream, without being divided into separate episodes. The psychological role of the orchestra is extremely great: for revealing the emotional experiences of the characters, it is no less important than the vocal part.
The mood of the entire opera is determined by the orchestral introduction; here brief motives continuously replace each other, sometimes mournful, sometimes ecstatic, always tense, passionate, never giving peace. The introduction is open-ended and goes directly into the music of the first act.
The motives of the introduction permeate the orchestral fabric of the first act, revealing the state of mind of Tristan and Isolde. They are contrasted with song episodes that serve as the background of a psychological drama. This is the song of the young sailor “Looking at the Sunset” that opens the act, sounding from afar, without orchestral accompaniment. Kurvenal’s ironic song, taken up by the chorus “So tell Isolde,” is energetic and courageous. The central characteristic of the heroine is contained in her long story “On the sea, a boat, driven by a wave, sailed to the Irish rocks”; there is anxiety and confusion here. Similar sentiments mark the beginning of the dialogue between Tristan and Isolde, “What will be your order?”; at the end of it the motives of love longing sound again.
In the second act, the main place is occupied by the huge love duet of Tristan and Isolde, framed by scenes with Brangena and King Mark. The orchestral introduction conveys Isolde’s impatient animation. The same mood prevails in the dialogue between Isolde and Brangena, accompanied by the distant roll call of hunting horns. The scene with Tristan is rich in contrasts of experiences; its beginning speaks of the stormy joy of a long-awaited meeting; then memories arise of the suffering experienced in separation, curses on the day and light; the central episode of the duet is wide, slow, passionate tunes glorifying night and death: the first - “Come down to earth, night of love” with a flexible, free rhythm and tense-sounding unstable melody - was borrowed by Wagner from what he wrote in the year he began work on “Tristan” romance "Dreams" to the words of Mathilde Wesendonck. It is complemented by Brangena's call - a warning of danger - here the composer revives the form of “morning songs”, beloved by medieval troubadours. One of Wagner’s best melodies - “So, let us die in order to live forever” - is colorful, endlessly unfolding, directed upward. A big build up leads to a climax. In the final scene, Mark’s mournful, nobly restrained complaint stands out: “Did you really save? Do you think so? and a small chanted farewell to Tristan and Isolde, “In that distant land there is no sun on high,” where echoes of a love duet are heard.
The third act is framed by two extended monologues - the wounded Tristan at the beginning and the dying Isolde at the end. The orchestral introduction, using the melody of the romance “In the Greenhouse” with lyrics by Mathilde Wesendonck, embodies Tristan’s sorrow and longing. As in the first act, the painful emotional experiences of the characters are shaded by clearer song episodes. This is the sad tune of the English horn (shepherd's pipe), which opens the action and returns repeatedly in Tristan's monologue; such are Kurvenal's energetic speeches, accompanied by a march-like orchestral theme. They are contrasted by Tristan’s brief remarks, spoken as if in oblivion. The hero's long monologue is based on sudden changes in mood. It begins with the mournful phrases “Do you think so? I know better, but you can’t know what,” where echoes of his farewell to Isolde from the second act are heard. Gradually, the drama increases, despair is heard in Tristan’s speeches, suddenly it is replaced by joy, stormy jubilation, and again hopeless melancholy: “How can I understand you, an old, sad tune.” Then light lyrical melodies follow. The dramatic turning point of the act is the cheerful playing of the English horn. At the moment of Tristan's death, the theme of love longing that opened the opera is repeated again. Isolde’s expressive complaint “I’m here, I’m here, dear friend” is full of dramatic exclamations. She prepares the final scene - the death of Isolde. Here the melodic melodies of the love duet of the second act develop widely and freely, acquiring a transformed, enlightened ecstatic sound.
M. Druskin
“Tristan and Isolde” is the most original creation of Wagner the poet: it amazes with its simplicity and artistic integrity. The multi-layered plot lines of the ancient legend, which dates back to the 12th century, are reduced to several scenes, a large number of participants in the drama - two main characters and three or four performing secondary functions.
In the center of Act I is the fatal mistake of Tristan and Isolde, instead of a cup of poison, they drained a cup with a magic drink of love (the scene is the deck of a ship on the high seas). In the center of Act II is the opera's best, symphonically developed love scene (the scene is a shady park in the domain of King Mark, whose wife is Isolde; here the king overtakes the lovers, and one of the courtiers mortally wounds Tristan). Act III, the most complete (in Tristan's castle on the seashore), is imbued with the languid anticipation of the meeting and death of the heroes of the work.
The surrounding life seems to reach the consciousness of the lovers from afar: this is the song of the helmsman, the exclamations of the sailors in Act I, or the sounds of hunting horns in Act II, or the lonely pipe of a shepherd in Act III. “The depths of inner mental movements” - this is what, according to Wagner, is expressed in his poem. The composer, first of all, strives to convey the diversity of feelings of love - longing, anticipation, pain, despair, thirst for death, enlightenment, hope, jubilation - all these shades receive an amazingly rich and strong expression in music.
That is why “Tristan” is Wagner’s most inactive opera: the “event” side in it is reduced to a minimum in order to give more scope to the identification of psychological states. And even if an important dramatically effective moment arises, and this is the duel between Melot and Tristan (in Act II), Wagner characterizes it briefly and sparingly, while the love scene preceding the duel takes up almost more than half of the act.
It would be wrong, however, to believe that Wagner completely isolates his heroes from life. Yes, he will be less and less interested in depicting the external setting of the action. But in the dramaturgy of Wagner’s operas, the importance of pictures of nature and pictorial sketches increases accordingly. Trying to penetrate into the essence of folk myth, to discover in it what is not connected with “random”, as Wagner puts it, historical layers, he shows the “true man” in spiritual communication with nature, in an inextricable connection with it. The role of this landscape factor is especially great in the dramaturgy of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”. But even in Tristan it is significant.
The action of the opera takes place mainly in the evening and night hours. For romantics, night is a symbol of feelings freed from the shackles of reason. It is at night that elemental forces awaken; The night hours are full of fantasy, the poetic charm of vague, mysterious movements in nature, in the human soul. The clarity of the day is alien to romantics, it seems to them to be illusory, for the sun blinds the eye, does not allow one to see that hidden thing that is revealed only in the twilight season (This is the fundamental difference between the romantics and the classics of the Viennese school. The light of reason, in the minds of the latter, brought up on the philosophy of the Enlightenment, disperses the darkness of prejudices and superstitions. Therefore, for example, the ideological concept of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” is polar opposite to “Tristan”: dazzling Sun shine kingdom of wisdom Sarastro confronts the personification of evil - the Queen Nights.) . That is why the German romantic poet Novalis sang the hymns of the night with such inspiration. Among the composers of the 19th century, no one sang “night romance” as much as Wagner, and above all in “Tristan”.
The music of the opera - this gigantic vocal-symphonic poem about the destructive power of all-consuming passion - is marked by the unity of dramatic expression, a huge tension of feelings; the entire work is engulfed in constant excitement. In-depth psychologism, “hypertrophied sensitivity” (the expression of Romain Rolland) - this is what is characteristic of “Tristan”. This dominant state is concisely stated in the orchestral introduction to the opera, in which its content is conveyed, as if in a clot. The introduction is a cyclopeanally expanded, unified musical period, the dynamics of development of which follow, as it were, in a circle, returning to the starting point at the moment of climax. "All in vain! The heart falls powerlessly to dissolve in languor,” Wagner explains the meaning of this introduction.
From the very beginning of the introduction, a feeling of extreme emotional tension is created. The first fourteen to fifteen bars represent a broad dominant prefix (the main key of the introduction is A-minor, only in the conclusion does C-dur and the minor of the same name appear). Stubbornly avoiding the tonic triad, in the development of the “endless melody”, concealing the edges of cadences, using altered harmonies, sequences, and constantly modulating, Wagner extremely sharpens the mode-tonal movement. In the initial theme, the decisive significance is that unstable consonance, which resolves into a dominant seventh chord, which further enhances the feeling of languid tension. (This third quarter chord with a dropped fifth ( f) and non-chord tone ( gis), going to the seventh, is the leitharmony of “Tristan”, permeating the entire fabric of the score.)
It is carried out three times (the fourth, incomplete execution echoes the previous ones), after which the second theme of love longing arises:
The development of these themes (after bar 16) gives rise to a more coherent dynamic wave leading to A major. Its peak is emphasized by the appearance of the third, frantically enthusiastic theme (bars 64-65):
From here begins the next, highest and most intense wave of dynamics (from bars 74 to 84), the culmination of which is at the same time the climax of the entire introduction! - marks a breakdown: a return to the initial state (chord f-ces-es-as enharmonically identical to the chord f-h-dis-gis, with which the introduction begins).
The considered introduction concentrates the typical features of the opera score. Noting that the harmonies of Tristan in places achieve “astounding beauty and plasticity,” Rimsky-Korsakov pointed out that the music as a whole “represents almost exclusively sophisticated style taken to extremes tensions" This tension, as Rimsky-Korsakov aptly describes it, gives rise to a “monotony of luxury.”
So in Wagner's music, along with " Siegfried's", included " Tristanovskoe" Start. And if the first is associated with the deepening of objective, folk-national features in Wagner’s music, then the second causes an intensification of subjective, subtly psychological aspects. To one degree or another, these two principles coexist in works written in the post-Lohengrin period. “Tristan” occupies a separate place in this regard: “Siegfried” motifs are almost completely absent in it.
Despite this limitation of content, Wagner achieved great power of expression within the framework of the task he set himself. He discovered not only new artistic means for conveying complex psychological shades of emotional experiences, but also further developed methods symphonization operas, which contributed to the creation of a flexible and capacious in content, large through forms. The best passages of the opera captivate with true drama: the orchestral introduction and the final scene of Isolde’s death. These two large passages form an arch that frames the entire work. (They are often performed back to back in the form of two symphonic pieces.) Their music complements each other: the thematic nature of the introduction, as the drama develops, gives way to the leading theme of Isolde’s death scene:
The last theme takes on dominant significance in the opera, starting with the love duet, which is the center of Act II. This is “a gigantic forest melody,” Wagner said about the duet’s music. “You won’t remember its melody, but it will never be forgotten; in order to awaken it in the soul, you need to go into the forest on a summer evening...”
Barkova A.L.“TRISTAN AND IZOLDE” (“The Romance of Tristan and Iseult” - “Le Roman de Tristan et Iseult”) - literary monuments of the Middle Ages and modern times. A beautiful story about love has become the most popular plot of a knightly romance since the 12th century. The roots of this legend go back to the Celtic epic, where the Pictish leader Drustan, son of Irb, is found; many place names of the legend (the forest of Morua, Loonua, etc.) point to Scotland; the name Essilt (the future Isolde) is a Welsh version of the pre-Roman Adsilthea (“she who is looked upon”). Various elements of the legend can be traced in such prototypical monuments as “The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne” (Grainne is supposed to marry the old chief Finn, but prefers his nephew Diarmuid; a witchcraft drink plays a role in bewitching the young man, the lovers wander in the forests, with Diarmuid laying between him and Grainne's sword, then they make peace with Finn, but Diarmuid dies, and Grainne, having become Finn's wife, commits suicide); “The Saga of Kano, son of Grantan” (the wife of King Markan is in love with the hero, she tries to achieve his love, again using a magic potion; Kano leaves her, giving away the stone in which his soul is imprisoned, and when the heroine receives false news about his death in the sea, she throws herself off a cliff, while Kano’s stone breaks and he dies); “The Saga of Bail of Good Glory” (false news about the death of one of the lovers leads to the death of both, trees grow on their graves, love stories are written on tablets from them, and then these tablets are inextricably connected). All these monuments are of Celtic (mainly Irish) origin, and the novel takes place exclusively in Celtic lands.
The novel is permeated with motifs from Celtic mythology. These are not only such frankly magical images as the dragon and giant defeated by Tristan, not only the birds traditional for Irish mythology, connected by a golden chain in pairs (in the novel - swallows carrying Isolde’s hair), but, first of all, the theme of courtship to the daughter of a hostile ruler the other world (cf. the Irish saga “Matchmaking to Emer”). This is exactly how the novel shows Ireland - the country of Morolt and the dragon, where the wounded Tristan sails on a boat without oars or sails, a country where the sorceress queen brews a love potion, and her golden-haired daughter (a sign of otherworldliness) Isolde forever destroys the peace of those who love her, King Mark and Tristana.
The mythological identity of love and death permeates the novel from the very beginning. Tristan's loving parents die; Isolde feels love for the slayer of the dragon, but, recognizing him as her uncle’s killer, she wants to kill him; the heroes drink the drink of love, thinking that they are drinking the drink of death; They find the highest happiness of love in the forest of Morois, where they hide, having escaped execution; finally, Isolde dies of love for Tristan, but after death they are united by a wonderful rose hip. The image of Isolde goes back to the idea of a beautiful and deadly mistress of another world, whose love is destructive, and her arrival in the world of people threatens her with death, and people with troubles. All this is in the novel, but new content is put into the ancient mythological images: Isolde appears as a passionate and tender woman who does not want to recognize the power of either her father, her husband, or human and divine laws over herself: for her, the law is her love.
The image of King Mark undergoes an even greater transformation. In the mythological plot, this is an old ruler hostile to the heroes, directly or indirectly embodying the forces of death. However, before us is one of the noblest heroes, humanly forgiving what he must punish as a king. Loving his nephew and his wife, he wants to be deceived by them, and this is not weakness, but the greatness of his image.
Tristan is the most traditional. The laws of the plot require him to be a powerful knight, educated and beautiful, to be an ardent lover who overcomes any obstacles. But the uniqueness of the hero of the legend lies in the fact that he simultaneously loves Isolde and remains faithful to Mark (and is therefore doomed to be tormented by the choice between these feelings). He tries to cut the Gordian knot by marrying another Isolde.
Isolde Belorukaya acts as the human double of the otherworldly heroine. In mythology, such duality turns into death, and in the novel White-Armed Isolde leads lovers to death. And yet, it is wrong to see in her only a destructive double - just like other heroes of the novel, she appears not as an archaic image, but as a living person, an insulted woman.
Early versions of the novel were written by the French trouvères of the second half of the 12th century, Thomas and Béroul (their relative chronology causes disagreement among scholars). Bérul's novel is closer to its Celtic prototypes, especially in its depiction of the image of Isolde. One of the most poetic scenes of the novel is the episode in the forest of Morois, where King Mark, having found Tristan and Isolde sleeping and seeing a naked sword between them, readily forgives them (in the Celtic sagas a naked sword separated the bodies of heroes before they became lovers, Berulya is a hoax). The love of Tristan and Isolde in Béroul is devoid of courtliness: they are possessed by a passion that does not interrupt even after the cessation of the love potion (this period is limited to three years in Béroul).
Thoma's novel has traditionally been viewed as a courtly version of Béroul's work. However, Tom's courtliness is expressed more likely in a kind of love rhetoric than in ideas about love in general, which are very far from the laws of courtly play. The entire novel is permeated with the theme of suffering, separation, tragic love, for which happiness is unthinkable. Researchers unanimously note the great degree of truvère's psychologism in the depiction of his heroes.
Among other works, we note “Honeysuckle” by Marie of France, which describes only one episode of the legend: Tristan, who secretly arrived in Cornwall, leaves a branch with his name on Isolde’s path, and she hurries to a date. The poetess compares lovers to hazel and honeysuckle, which gives the name to the le, captivating with its graceful touchingness.
Over the next centuries, many authors turned to the legend; it became involved in the cycle of Argurov's tales. These later works lose the poetic merits of the 12th century novels, the image of Isolde fades into the background, and other heroes are depicted in a straightforward and more crude manner.
Interest in the oldest form of the novel arose at the beginning of the 19th century with the publication by W. Scott of the medieval poem “Sir Tristrem”. In the 1850s R. Wagner writes his famous musical drama “Tristan and Isolde,” and in 1900, the French researcher J. Bedier, based on a scientific reconstruction of the text, creates his “Roman of Tristan and Isolde,” which is both a recreated archetypal plot and an excellent literary work. At the beginning of the 20th century, E. Hardt’s drama “The Fool of Tantris,” staged in Russia by V. E. Meyerhold, was successfully staged on European stages, and this production influenced A. L. Blok (drafts of the drama “Tristan”).
Lit.: The Legend of Tristan and Isolde. M, 1976; Mikhailov AD. The Legend of Tristan and Isolde and its completion // Philologica. Studies in language and literature. L., 1973.
Beautiful legends about love have always touched the soul, especially if their end is sad. Joseph Bedier's work "Tristan and Isolde" was no exception. Read on for a summary of this romantic and tragic story.
It all started with the fact that Tristan, whose mother Queen Loonua died immediately after his birth, was sent to be raised by the King of Gaul Pharamon. he went to serve his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. To save Cornwalls from the annual tribute paid to Ireland, Tristan kills Morhult, the brother of the Irish queen, who came for the next payment, but Morhult manages to wound Tristan with a poisoned spear. Only Isolde, the daughter of the Queen of Ireland and the niece of the murdered Morkhult, can heal him. Under a different name, Tristan arrives at the royal castle, where Isolde heals him. He notices her beauty.
Further, the summary of “Tristan and Isolde” tells that the young man kills the snake that attacked the kingdom. As a token of gratitude, they want to give him half the kingdom and Isolde, but then they find out that it was he who killed Morkhult, and they expel him. Tristan returns to Cornwall. Uncle Mark makes him the manager of all his possessions, but then begins to hate him. Wanting to get rid of his nephew, he sent him to where he was expelled from so that he could bring him Isolde as his wife. Tristan goes and again saves the Irish kingdom, for which he is forgiven for the death of Morkhult and given Isolde for Mark.
Tristan and Isolde (a brief summary allows you to tell the story without going into details) are sailing on a ship to Cornwall. Brangien's maid is sailing with them. When it became very hot, Tristan asked for a drink for himself and Isolde, but Brangien mistakenly handed them a jug with a love potion, which Isolde and Mark were supposed to drink. So the young man and the girl were inflamed with all-consuming and destructive love for each other.
Isolde marries Mark, but continues to love Tristan, who is also tormented by separation. Brangien helps them arrange secret dates, but one day Mark finds out about it. He orders Tristan to be burned at the stake, and Isolde to be thrown to the joy of lepers. However, the lovers escape and run away into the forest. But Mark finds them there too. He takes Isolde away, and Tristan, again wounded by a poisoned arrow, goes to Brittany, where he is healed by the king’s daughter, also named Isolde. The young man marries her, but still cannot forget his beloved, who almost died of grief after learning about Tristan’s wedding.
Next, Tristan and Isolde, a summary of the legend about which you are now reading, met again. But one day the young man was wounded again, and this time no one could help him. Therefore, in order to see his beloved for the last time, he sent one of his shipmen after her, ordering him to raise white sails if the girl was with him on the way back, and black ones if he sailed without her. At this time, he himself writes a note addressed to Mark and ties it to his sword. The shipowner managed to kidnap Isolde, but Tristan's jealous wife found out about everything and told her husband that the ship was returning under a black sail. The lover's heart could not stand it and he died.
Isolde, going ashore, finds her beloved dead, and dies herself, hugging him. Their bodies were taken to Cornwall. Mark discovers a note and learns from it that an accidentally drunk love potion is to blame. He is heartbroken and regrets that he found out about this so late, otherwise he would not have interfered with the lovers. Isolde and Tristan, at the behest of Mark, were buried in the same chapel. Soon a beautiful thorn bush grew from the young man’s grave and grew into the grave of the blond Isolde, spreading across the entire chapel. Mark ordered the bush to be cut down three times, but this did not help: the next day the thorn bush grew back. This is the legend “Tristan and Isolde”, a brief summary of which, of course, cannot convey all its beauty and drama.
Various versions of the novel about Tristan and Isolde began to appear in the late 60s of the 12th century. Around 1230, a prose French adaptation of the plot was made. Many knights of the Round Table had already appeared in it, and thus the legend of Tristan and Isolde was included in the general context of Arthurian legends. The prose novel was preserved in several dozen manuscripts and was first published in 1489. One of the later manuscripts (15th century) formed the basis of the publication prepared by one of the largest specialists in medieval French literature, Pierre Champion (1880-1942). Based on this edition (Le Roman de Tristan et Iseut. Traduction du roman en prose du quinzième siècle par Pierre Champion. Paris, 1938) a translation was made by Y. Stefanov, which was used in the retelling of the legend further:
Depending on the nationality of the researchers, Tristan’s homeland is considered to be either a French area on the border of Brittany and Normandy, near the city of Saint-Paul de Leon, or County Lothian in Scotland. Tristan's mother, Queen Eliabelle, died immediately after the birth of her son. Before her death, she gave her son a name: “My son, I really wanted to see you! And now I see the most beautiful creature ever born by a woman; but I have little joy from your beauty, for I am dying from the torment that I had to endure for your sake.” ". I came here, lamenting from sadness, my birth was sad, in sadness I gave birth to you, and for your sake I am sad to die. And since you were born out of sadness, your name will be sad: as a sign of sadness, I name you Tristan" ( in Latin “tristis” - “sad”).
Tristan's father, King Meliaduc, having become a widow, married the daughter of the Nantes King Hoel, a beautiful but treacherous woman. The stepmother did not like Tristan. Tristan was barely 7 years old when his father died. Tristan's teacher Guvernal fled with the boy from the hatred of his stepmother to Gaul, to the court of King Pharamon. When Tristan grew up, he went into the service of his uncle Mark, king of Cornwall, on whom lay the annual tribute to the Irish king, established 200 years ago, of one hundred girls, one hundred boys who had reached fifteen years of age, and one hundred thoroughbred horses. Morhult, the brother of the Irish queen, arrived in Cornwall with an army to demand this tribute. To rid the kingdom of tribute, Tristan volunteered to fight Morkhult and defeated him, but was wounded by Morkhult's poisoned spear.
No one could cure Tristan and he asked to put him in a boat and send him to the sea: “if the Lord wills for me to drown, death will seem like a great consolation to me, for I have long been exhausted from suffering. And if I manage to recover, I will return to Cornwalls." “Tristan wandered through the sea for two weeks until his boat washed up on the shores of Ireland, not far from the castle of Hessedot. The Irish king and his wife, Morkhult’s sister, lived there. And their daughter, Isolde, lived with them. “And this Isolde was more beautiful all the women in the world, and in those days no one would have been found who would have surpassed her in the art of healing, for she knew all the herbs and their properties. And at that time she was fourteen years old" (Tristan was 15 years old at that time). Isolde cured Tristan, not knowing that he was the murderer of her uncle.
A snake settled in Ireland, devastating the country, and the king announced that whoever could defeat the snake would give everything he asked for, half of his kingdom and his daughter Isolde, if he wanted to take her. Tristan killed the snake, but was poisoned by its poison and Isolde healed Tristan again. Meanwhile, it was discovered that Tristan was Morkhult’s murderer. Tristan was expelled from Ireland and returned to King Mark. Mark's courtiers began to fear that after Mark's death the throne would pass to Tristan and convinced Mark to marry so that an heir to the throne would be born. King Mark, remembering Tristan’s words about Isolde’s beauty, decided to woo her. The Irish king agreed to reconcile with King Mark and marry his daughter Isolde to him.
Isolde's mother gave Tristan's tutor Guvernal and her maid Brangien a love potion to give to King Mark and Isolde on their wedding night. During the voyage, Tristan and Isolde played chess and became thirsty. The governor and Brangien mistakenly gave Tristan and Isolde a love potion. Seized by insane passion, Tristan and Isolde fell in love with each other for life and gave themselves to each other right on the ship.
On her wedding night with Mark, Isolde, in order to avoid being exposed as having lost her virginity before the wedding, swapped in complete darkness with Brangien (who was a virgin) on Mark’s bed. In the morning, Mark saw blood on the bed and did not understand that he had been deceived. Isolde spent that night with Tristan. Fearing Brangien, a witness and participant in the deception, Isolde ordered her to be taken to the forest and killed. The servants did not do this and only tied the maid to a tree. They told Isolde that they had killed Brangien, but seeing Isolde’s repentance, they told the truth and the maid was returned.
Tristan and Isolde met in secret, but were eventually exposed. Mark gave Isolde to the lepers so that they could rape her. However, Tristan's teacher Guvernal saved Isolde and handed her over to Tristan. Tristan, Governor, Isolde and her maid Lamida settled in an abandoned castle in the forest.
After some time, Mark found out where Tristan and Isolde lived and ordered Isolde to be returned and Tristan to be killed. The king's envoys found only one Isolde in the castle, and Tristan was hunting at that time. Isolde was returned to Mark.
Tristan was seriously wounded by one of Mark's servants. Brangien advised him to leave: “Go to Brittany, to the palace of King Hoel, who has a daughter named White-handed Isolde; she is so knowledgeable in the art of medicine that she will certainly heal you” [Tristan’s beloved was called White-haired Isolde, she should not be confused with White-handed Isolde ]. White-armed Isolde healed Tristan. “And he looked at this Isolde, and fell in love with her, and thought that if he could marry her, he would forget Isolde for her sake. And it seems to him that he can leave the other Isolde for many reasons, and first of all because "that she belonged contrary to law and reason: who, having heard about this, would not consider him a traitor and a villain? And he decided that it would be best for him to take this Isolde and leave that one." Tristan married White-armed Isolde: “if the other Isolde loved him, then this one loved him a hundred times more.”
"The night came when Tristan had to lie down with Isolde. Thoughts about another Isolde do not allow him to know her, but do not prevent him from hugging and kissing. And so Tristan lies next to Isolde, and both of them are naked, and the lamp burns so brightly that it can he sees her beauty. Her neck is tender and white, her eyes are black and cheerful, her eyebrows are steep and thin, her face is tender and clear. And Tristan hugs her and kisses her. But, remembering Isolde of Cornwall, he loses all desire to go further.
This Isolde is here, in front of him, but the other one, who remained in Cornwall and who is dearer to him than himself, does not allow him to commit treason. So Tristan lies with Isolde, his wife. And she, not knowing that there are other pleasures in the world than hugs and kisses, sleeps on his chest until the morning, when the ladies and maids come to visit them.”
Isolde Blonde, having learned about Tristan’s marriage, was greatly saddened and tried to commit suicide.
Tristan, deciding to see the Blonde Isolde, pretended to be crazy and came to Cornwall. Only the dog recognized Tristan. Isolde did not recognize Tristan, because... there was a scar on his face and his head was shaved. Only when he identified himself and showed her the ring that Isolde herself gave him.
Edward Burne-Jones. "Insanity" by Tristan
Tristan and Isolde met in secret for two months until they were discovered. Before separation, Isolde asked Tristan:
“My beloved and dear friend, if you happen to die before me or become mortally ill, order yourself to be put on a ship and brought here. And let half of the sails on that ship be black and half white. If you die or are about to die, let the black sails be hoisted on the forward mast; and if you are in good health, then there shall be white sails on the forward mast, and black ones on the back. And I will do the same, if I happen to die before you. And as soon as the ship enters the harbor , I will go there to meet my great sorrow or immeasurable joy, I will hug you and shower you with countless kisses, and then I will die to be buried with you. For if during life the bonds of our love were so strong, then it will not be possible for me to break them death. And know that if I die before you, I will do the same."
Tristan returned home to his wife. Soon he was wounded in the battle and no one could heal his wound. Then he sent a shipowner he knew to Isolde the Blonde, who, having learned about Tristan’s illness, ran away from Mark and boarded the ship. Tristan ordered his goddaughter to immediately notify him of the appearance of a ship with white and black sails. Tristan's wife found out about this and realized that Tristan loved someone else. When a ship with white sails on the front mast appeared in the distance, Tristan's wife told her goddaughter to stay on the pier, and she went to Tristan and said that a ship with black sails had appeared. Tristan, deciding that his beloved had not arrived, died. Isolde Blonde, who arrived, entered and saw the dead Tristan, lay down next to him and also died, not imagining life without her lover.
Jean Delville - Tristan and Isolde
Mark was given Tristan's suicide note addressed to him, in which he revealed that he fell in love with Isolde not of his own free will, but under the influence of a love potion. Mark became sad and burst into tears:
- Woe is me! Why didn't I find out about this earlier? Then I would have hidden from everyone that Tristan loves Isolde, and would not have pursued them. And now I have lost my nephew and my wife!
Tristan and Isolde were buried not far from each other. “From the grave of Tristan rose a beautiful thorn bush, green and lush-leaved, and, spreading across the chapel, grew into Isolde’s grave. The surrounding residents found out about this and informed King Mark. Three times the king ordered this bush to be cut, but every time the next day it appeared so as beautiful as ever."
The full text of the legend of Tristan and Isolde can be read.
Orphaned in infancy, Tristan, having reached adulthood, goes to Tintagel to the court of King Mark, his relative. There he performs his first feat, kills the terrible giant Morholt, but is wounded. Isolde the Golden-haired heals him.
After some time, King Mark decides to marry the girl whose hair was brought in the bird’s beak. Tristan immediately recognizes Isolde's golden hair and goes to woo her. During the return voyage, the young people accidentally drink a love drink, and mutual feelings awaken in them. Isolde gets married, but the lovers cannot cope with the feeling. They are accused and run away together.
King Mark forgives his wife, but orders Tristan to leave the court. He returns to his homeland, Brittany, where his fame grows thanks to many exploits. The King of Brittany has a daughter named Isolde White-Armed, he gives her in marriage to Tristan, but he continues to remain faithful to his beloved even in marriage to another.
Having received a poisoned wound, Tristan asks to send the news of his imminent death to Isolde Zlatokudra. He agrees that if she arrives on a ship with the envoy, there should be a white sail on the mast, and if not, a black one. Out of jealousy, Isolde Belorukaya orders to say that the sail is black, and Tristan dies of despair. His beloved, having gone ashore, falls and dies next to him.
The famous legend of the love of Tristan and Isolde reveals a common medieval conflict between the norms of public morality and fidelity to one's feelings. The motif of the love potion helps to relieve the characters of responsibility for their mutual attraction, to “purify” them, but the text itself clearly shows a hidden condemnation of church dogma, glorification of the fullness of life and freedom.
Read a detailed summary of the novel Tristan and Isolde
Tristan's father dies while hunting while his mother gives birth to their first child. Having learned about the death of her beloved husband, the woman dies, having managed to give her son the name Tristan, which means “sadness.” The young man is raised by his father's knights until he comes of age, and then Tristan goes to Ireland to his uncle, King Mark.
The childless ruler receives him kindly and kindly. Very quickly, Tristan finds a reason to prove himself by fighting the giant Morholt. For several years now, the monster has been coming to Tintagel for a terrible tribute - he takes the best boys and girls from the kingdom. Tristan gains the upper hand in the duel, but he himself receives a serious wound. He is found by Princess Isolde, Morholt's niece. She knows healing herbs and heals the wounds of the young knight, only later learning that he is her enemy.
After some time, King Mark's subjects begin to demand that he conceive an heir. When choosing a wife, the king is stubborn: he certainly wants as his wife the girl whose hair he found in the beak of a bird that flew into the palace. Tristan recognizes a hair from Isolde the Golden-haired hairstyle. He goes to woo the girl. After he defeats the dragon in a duel that was devouring people in the kingdom, his parents want to give Isolde for him, but Tristan asks for her hand in marriage for Mark and receives consent. In order for Isolde to be happy with the middle-aged king, her mother prepares a bowl of love infusion for her. On the way back to Tintagel, thirsty, Tristan and Isolde accidentally drink a potion and are overcome with passion.
To hide the dishonor of her mistress and make up for the mistake, Branwen, Isolde’s maid, who gave the young people the cup, takes her place on King Mark’s wedding bed, taking advantage of the darkness. Despite respect and love for King Mark, Tristan and Isolde cannot part with each other. Rumors of their affair finally reach the king, who in anger orders the traitors to be burned. Fleeing, they flee to the forest of Morois, where they hide together. After some time, King Mark forgives them and takes his wife back, but Tristan is forced to leave the court.
He goes to Brittany, where he performs many feats of arms and gains great fame. Tristan becomes friends with the king's sons, Kaerdin and Rivalen. One day during a rest, the brothers hear Tristan calling Isolde by name in a dream. Not knowing his story, they decide that their friend fell in love with their sister Isolde, nicknamed White-Handed. They inform their father about this, and he happily agrees to such a marriage. Not wanting to offend the ruler, Tristan takes Isolde White-Armed as his wife. Their union is sad - not wanting to betray his beloved, Tristan does not touch his wife.
Suddenly an enemy invasion begins. Reflecting attacks along with the rest of the knights, Tristan receives a wound that does not seem dangerous. However, he gets worse day by day, and it turns out that the weapon was poisoned. Wanting to look at his beloved for the last time before his death, Tristan sends a messenger to the court of King Mark, begging Isolde the Golden-haired to sail to him. He sets a condition: if Isolde refuses, then the ship must go back under a black sail as a sign of mourning.
A few days later, a watchman on duty on the tower notices the white sail of a returning ship. This means that Isolde is rushing to her lover! Jealous of her husband even now and wanting to prevent this meeting, Isolde Belorukaya orders the watchman to lie. Having learned that his expectations were in vain, Tristan stops fighting for his life and gives up his ghost a few moments before the arrival of Golden-haired Isolde.
Seeing the dead Tristan, she throws herself on his chest and dies of anguish. Their bodies are buried in graves on both sides of the church, but thorn bushes sprout from the ground above the coffins, the branches of which braid the walls of the church and connect, thereby continuing to bind the lovers in death. The miracle delights King Mark, he orders that the bushes be guarded and not let anyone touch them.
Picture or drawing of Tristan and Isolde
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