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‘Kaufmann sings Tristan’ … was not the title of this concert, but it might as well have been. The Gstaad Menuhin Festival, held every summer high in the Swiss Alps, peppers its six-week programme with performances from high-profile stars. A Festival Orchestra is on hand to accompany, and a festival tent serves as the main venue. Here, a wooden acoustic shell accommodates the orchestra and projects its sound effectively, though the singers, standing stage front, don’t get the same benefit.  

Camilla Nylund and Josef Kaufmann | Photo: Raphael FAUX

Act 2 of Tristan was presented, with orchestral excerpts from Parsifal for the first half, the Prelude and Good Friday Spell. Conductor Mark Elder always has a clear vision for Wagner’s music, taking a steady pace and focussing on clarity of line. The Festival Orchestra came across as highly professional but a little lacking in corporate identity. Fortunately, some characterful and emotive woodwind solos added character – as they did in Tristan too, and Elder made a point of picking out both the bass clarinettist and cor anglais player in the final applause.  

For Tristan, an atmospheric stage décor was devised, with chiffon drapes hanging in rows down the sides of the stage. On to these were initially projected images of an Arthur Rackham-like forest. When the lovers began to emote, this was replaced by computer-generated images of a naked couple, their desires represented by clouds of light points in their bodies. The effect was disturbingly reminiscent of adverts for indigestion remedies. A line of oblong boxes served as a set, but the only props were a blanket for the lovers to sleep beneath and swords for the final duel.   

Mark Elder conducts Josef Kaufmann | Photo: Raphael FAUX

The subsidiary roles were all well cast. Sasha Cooke’s Brangäne dominated the first scene. She has a rich, warm tone, expressive and well projected, and always with something in reserve for the cadences. Her later appearance, with ‘Einsam wachend in der Nacht’, was magical, delivered from behind the orchestra, but with equal power. Presenting the second act alone reduces Melot to a tiny cameo, but Todd Boyce made it count, with a strong, well-supported voice and real stage presence in the final duel. An impressive King Marke, too, from Christof Fischesser, a little unsteady at his first appearance, but soon settling into a commanding monologue. He must be the youngest Marke I’ve ever seen, younger it seemed than the two leads. 

Camilla Nylund comes straight from singing Isolde at Bayreuth, so she is a known quantity. Her voice is mature and lacks some flexibility, but her tone is imperious and engaging, and her top notes ring out beautifully. 

All eyes, and ears, of course, were on Jonas Kaufmann. His entrance in Act II is abrupt, taking the stage with an impassioned ‘Isolde! Gelibte!’. The volume and presence of these calls were classic Kaufmann, but this initial duet with Nylund suggested that she was going to be more consistent performer. The steely focus of Kaufmann’s tone often returned, but was lacking at the top, which sounded hollow. A lack of flexibility also laboured the upward leaps. Fortunately, the warm, baritonal quality of his lower register is still in evidence, and the ‘Nacht der Liebe’ love duet was captivating, a real highlight. He still held the show – a star turn as ever – but this was not a performance to compare with Kaufmann’s world-beating best. 

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