Tristan and Isolde at the Met Opera
A Musical and Visual Treat
By: Susan Hall - Mar 10, 2026
The Metropolitan Opera is proposing a future with its new production of Tristan und Isolde. Directed by the now middle-aged enfant terrible Yuval Sharon, it is in part a test of his suitability for the Der Ring des Nibelungen, which will follow in 2027. Do we imbibe Richard Wagner’s musical potion in Sharon’s new take on the mythic love story?
Isolde is sung by one of the world’s leading sopranos, Lise Davidsen, compared—still in whispers—to Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Callas. The tall dramatic soprano has the body of the great singers: a long, rectangular frame from which huge tones emerge. She does not shatter the Met’s space, but rather fills every corner with lonely sound. Her high Cs are assured and thrilling. Her voice is striking and often beautiful; now it is filled with emotional interest.
In shaping this work, Wagner gives Isolde a powerful dramatic arc, and Davidsen sails on it.
Michael Spyres sings Tristan with deep inner feeling. The animal in him erupts and enfolds us. His heldentenor edge—heard to great effect in duet work around the globe with Lawrence Brownlee—proves perfect for the role. He is a soulful singer.
This triumvirate delivers. Ryan Speedo Green’s King Marke augurs well for his Wagner future. Ekaterina Gubanova’s Brangäne and Tomasz Konieczny’s Kurwenal provide luxury casting across the board.
A star of the show is Es Devlin, Beyoncé’s frequent collaborator. She creates a film screen roughly the size of the Met’s vast stage—80 feet tall by 101 feet wide. You feel as if you are in the biggest movie theater imaginable. Sharon plays with a table that suggests shifting perspectives. It seems incidental but does not get in the way of the proceedings. A tunnel, shaped like an eye at its entrance, suggests the gaze Tristan fixes on Isolde, igniting their passion. We can see inside as we listen to the interior voices of the two leads.
To appreciate the videos of Ruth Hogben, you have to attend the performance and allow yourself to be swept up in her oceans, and her colors,enhanced by John Torres’s lighting effects, both subtle and bold. The general manager, Peter Gelb, is right: you have not had this experience at the Met before. It is wonderful.
Yannick Nézet Séguin supports the singers and draws out the subtleties of Wagner’s score. Anthony McGill adds a special touch, performing his instrumental solo onstage in a long white robe.
Unfortunately, Sharon cannot quite leave well enough alone. Instead of driving home Wagner’s spiritually transcendent moments—the culmination of the erotic desire he portrays so well in those yearning successions of notes and chords—Sharon shifts the focus toward rebirth in Act III. It is messy, and not as transporting as the composer intended.
Yet the evening is surely a great step forward for the company: delivering the heart of the repertoire with a fresh look and a sound true to its origins.