Opera Scotland

Tristan und Isolde in Scotland

Posted 30 Dec 2025

Early years

Tristan und Isolde was first performed in Scotland on 14 March 1901 at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, with a second evening at Glasgow Theatre Royal exactly one week later. The performances by the Moody-Manners company began at 19.30, which implies that some of the music was cut - a standard procedure for Wagner operas until quite recently. Fanny Moody, for many years a star of the Carl Rosa company, herself sang Isolde with Canadian tenor Charles Hedmondt as Tristan. Other principal roles were taken by Charles Magrath (King Mark), Marie Alexander (Brangäne) and Dillon Shallard (Kurwenal). The conductor was Romualdo Sapio.

This company returned to both theatres in 1905, now led by a renowned Wagner conductor in Richard Eckhold. Moody and Magrath repeated their roles, with Joseph O'Mara taking on Tristan. The same year the reformed Carl Rosa company brought Tristan to the Glasgow Grand, Eugene Goossens conducting a cast led by Winifred Ludlam and Julius Walther, with Arthur Winckworth as King Mark.

In 1911 a new company appeared with Tristan in their ambitious repertoire. The Quinlan Opera Company toured the world with an orchestra larger than usual for the time (still only 55 players). They visited Edinburgh and Glasgow with a new generation of top-class singers. John Coates, a great English tenor who enjoyed a long international career, sang Tristan. Agnes Nicholls, also well-known, was Isolde, with Edna Thornton (Brangäne) and Robert Parker (Kurwenal).

In 1912 we encounter the astonishing company established in Edinburgh by Dr Ernst Denhof. They performed several Wagner works, including the Ring, and gave Scottish premieres of Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Pelléas et Mélisande with other amazing offerings. For Tristan, at the Edinburgh King's, the Scottish Orchestra was conducted by Michael Balling, a veteran of the Bayreuth Festival, where he had played in the orchestra as well as conducting Tristan and the Ring.

For Denhof an excellent English soprano, Cicely Gleeson-White, sang Isolde. Tristan was Francis Maclennan, an American based in Germany. He took his English wife, the soprano Florence Easton, back to Hamburg, and, as American citizens, they were able to continue working in Germany after 1914, until the United States entered the war in 1917. The couple subsequently moved to Chicago, then New York.  Other cast members included Robert Radford (King Mark), Marie Brema (Brangäne) and Charles Knowles (Kurwenal).

The following season saw Denhof repeating Tristan with one major cast change. Frank Mullings, another important British tenor in the early decades of the twentieth century, took Tristan. More interestingly, the conductor was now the flamboyant Sir Thomas Beecham.

Fanny Moody and Charles Manners retired from directing their companies in 1916 and the enterprise was taken over by one of their leading tenors, the Irishman Joseph O'Mara. In 1917 he brought his O'Mara Grand Opera Company north of the central belt, and Tristan was seen in Dundee for the first (and as yet only) time. The title roles were taken by William Boland and Anna Lindsay. Local audiences were clearly interested in the singer of King Mark - the bass William Anderson was in the middle of an extensive career that took him from his home in Dundee all over the world.

Between the Wars

After 1918, economic conditions clearly made life challenging for operatic activity. Yet between the wars several companies toured large scale opera in the UK. The Carl Rosa continued. Sir Thomas Beecham's own company also appeared, to be succeeded by the British National Opera Company, and eventually the Covent Garden Opera. All continued to perform in English.

A soprano who sang Isolde with both Carl Rosa and BNOC was Beatrice Miranda. Miranda, an Australian who eventually settled in Edinburgh, took a leading role in life in the city, even emerging from retirement during the war to save a Sadler's Wells performance of Madam Butterfly when the protagonist fell ill. A New Zealander, Rosina Buckman, sang with BNOC, and another notable Australian, Florence Austral, was a leading performer with its successor, the Covent Garden Opera Company. In 1937 that company was at last able to bring another British Isolde in the person of Eva Turner - once a star of the Carl Rosa, she had spent a decade in Italy, recognised as the ideal interpreter of the title role in Turandot.

During the 'twenties Tristan continued to be sung by Boland and Mullings. In the 1930s however, a notable successor appeared in Walter Widdop. King Mark was sung by a succession of excellent basses - Arthur Winckworth (repeating a part he first sang in 1905), Norman Allin, Andrew Shanks and Norman Walker. Conductors of the work during this period included a notable Australian Aylmer Buesst, as well as Albert Coates and John Barbirolli.

After the second war, the Covent Garden company brought Tristan north once, in 1953, conducted again by Sir John Barbirolli. Yet another Australian soprano, Sylvia Fisher, appeared as Isolde. A notable expatriot Czech, Otakar Kraus, was Kurwenal. As well as a long career ar Covent Garden, Kraus developed a superb record as a teacher of the many notable British basses of recent decades.  Brangäne on this tour was sung by Constance Shacklock. An excellent contralto, she appeared as a guest at the Bolshoi in Moscow.  After her operatic career wound down Shacklock spent four years 'Climbing every mountain' eight times a week in the first London run of The Sound of Music.

Edinburgh International Festival

1958 was the year of the first visit to the Edinburgh International Festival by the opera company from Stuttgart. The conductor was Ferdinand Leitner and the staging was directed by the great innovator of Wagnerian production, Wieland Wagner, grandson of the composer. For the first time in Scotland, it seems, the work was performed in German. Scottish audiences have not heard it sung in English since.

To modern eyes the cast seems impressive, with the offstage sailor alternating at the hands of the notable Josef Traxel and the even greater Fritz Wunderlich. They were both on hand to sing Belmonte in the company's Mozart offering, but were expected to go on in other parts. Several more great singers appeared, with all four performances of Tristan being taken by Wolfgang Windgassen. Isolde was sung by two of the greatest Wagner sopranos of the decade, Martha Mödl and Astrid Varnay.  A legendary baritone, Gustav Neidlinger, appeared as Kurwenal, with Grace Hoffmann as Brangäne.

Since then, the Festival has only ever presented concert performances. The first of these was in 1990, when the Jutland Opera from Aarhus gave the work. Norwegian soprano Lisbeth Balslev had sung Senta for several seasons at Bayreuth, and here showed herself to be equally good as Isolde. The Finnish tenor Matti Kastu had been a member of the Stockholm company during their 1974 visit. King Mark was taken by Aage Haugland an excellent Danish bass who was familiar in London, singing Wagner at Covent Garden as well as Boris Godunov (in English) at ENO. The conductor of an excellent orchestra was Francesco Cristofoli.

For the 2005 Festival a cast was assembled led by Jonathan Nott, conducting his Bamberg Symphony as part of their Festival residency.  Christian Franz and Christine Brewer sang the title roles, with Jane Irwin (Brangäne) and John Relyea (King Mark). 2012 saw a further concert performance, this time with Welsh National Opera forces led by Lothar Koenigs. The title roles were in the hands of Ben Heppner, a notable Canadian tenor in his only Scottish appearance, and Jennifer Wilson.  Jan-Hendrik Rootering sang King Mark with Susan Bickley as Brangäne and Phillip Joll as Kurwenal.

Scottish Opera

Scottish Opera mounted its first staging in the Spring season of 1973. Alexander Gibson conducted Michael Geliot's production in sets designed by Ralph Koltai. The costumes were by Maria Bjørnson of Glasgow's Citizens' Theatre - not yet the famed designer of West End musicals she would become.  After the initial run in Glasgow, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, there were further performances that Autumn in Leeds and London. The week at Sadler's Wells Theatre, alternating with Pelléas, were the company's first complete performances in London. The main roles were double cast. The first two venues saw American Klara Barlow and Finn Pekka Nuotio in the title roles, with Norman Bailey (Kurwenal) and William McCue (King Mark). The cast for Edinburgh and Aberdeen included Helga Dernesch (who had just recorded the role with Karajan) and Hermin Esser, a regular at Bayreuth. John Shaw and David Ward also joined the cast. Brangäne was Ann Howard at all performances and there was a notable young Australian baritone, company member Malcolm Donnelly, also present as the Helmsman in the final scene.

The company's second staging, a co-production with Welsh National Opera, opened in 1994. The conductor was Richard Armstrong in the designs of director Yannis Kokkos. The title roles were taken by Jeffrey Lawton and Anne Evans (who had recently sung Brünnhilde at Bayreuth).  Carol Yahr sang some performances later in the year.  Other cast members included as Kurwenal that young Australian baritone, Malcolm Donnelly, who had sung the Helmsman twenty years before.

This production was revived in 1998, again with Armstrong conducting and Lawton and Evans leading the cast. Kathryn Harries and Carsten Stabell both repeated their roles as Brangäne and King Mark. Matthew Best joined the team as Kurwenal.