Overview
- The Wiesbaden Maifestspiele opened Friday with Tiago Rodrigues’s archive-set staging of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, paired with a free livestream in the Warmen Damm park.
- Inside the theater, boos followed the first act and some audience members did not return after the first break, while outdoor viewers reported confusion without surtitles and some left early.
- Conductor Leo McFall and the Hessisches Staatsorchester drew strong approval, though reviews noted slips in the winds late in the night and tenor Ric Furman sang through an audible indisposition.
- Rodrigues’s concept places the drama in an archive where two dancers, Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz, hold up white boards that comment on the action and even replace props, including a board labeled “Schwert” for the stabbing.
- Festival events extend the archive theme through “living archive” benches and talks for passersby, and the production returns for further performances on May 10 and May 24.