A ‘real’ Tristan enters the love duet at Disney

NOTWITHSTANDING a stupendous Isolde in Christine Brewer, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Tristan Project” has had an ongoing Tristan problem.

When this celebrated version of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” -- conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, with video projections by Bill Viola and stage direction by Peter Sellars -- debuted in Walt Disney Concert Hall two seasons ago, Clifton Forbis proved a strangled-sounding heldentenor. The opera’s revival began two weeks ago with Alan Woodrow, a clarion Canadian technically over his head.

But a new tenor, Christian Franz, was flown in from Germany for the orchestra’s second performance of the complete opera Tuesday night. The official announcement from the Philharmonic was that Woodrow had taken ill. Whatever the reason, Franz will continue with the production when it goes to New York next week.

The talk at intermission Tuesday was that here, at last, was a real Tristan. And Franz -- one of Europe’s busiest Wagnerians -- definitely is. As he demonstrated at the Hollywood Bowl two years ago in the last act of “Gotterdammerung,” which he also sang with Brewer, he is perfectly reliable if not a big vocal personality.

Tuesday, he came through remarkably well on remarkably short notice. He had but a piano run-through and just a short time with Sellars to learn the staging, which includes singing the ecstatic beginning of the big love duet amid the audience. Still, he seemed to know pretty much what to do, and all went well.

Franz has a Tristan’s requisite power and stamina. His voice is hard when pushed, lyrical and sweet when he sings softly and of love. He cannot overpower Brewer, but no one can. His huge delirium scene was crazed and convincing but not revelatory. Salonen and Franz were still evidently feeling each other out.

The evening had its mishaps. The lighting team missed its most important cue, the spectacularly disorienting effect of throwing the house into brilliant brightness at the end of the first act. But the orchestral brilliance all evening easily made up for that. With each performance, Salonen goes a little deeper, bringing greater intensity, a sharper focus on detail, more freedom, more meaning.

How all this will translate in Manhattan’s Avery Fisher Hall is anybody’s guess. Sellars will not be on hand to supervise the staging. New York critics will have to choose between the opening and the first night of Mark Morris’ new Metropolitan Opera “Orfeo ed Euridice.”

For ordinary mortals, meanwhile, there is the issue of ticket prices. A complete “Tristan” in Disney ran a reasonable $25 to $150. In the larger Fisher, all seats are $175 and $275.

mark.swed@latimes.com