List $8.99

Written & narrated by Christopher Cook with Sean Barrett as Wagner - Audio-Original Recording - Nonfiction - 1 COMPACT DISC + 12 page booklet - 79 minutes

Publisher, Naxos (January 2006)

Opera Explained presents the plots and music of major operas, communicating with enthusiasm the joys of a great art form.

Each title includes:

• Principal arias and choruses

• Background to the composer and his works

• Ideal preparation for a visit to the opera-house, and an entertaining revision afterwards

"If you feel you are forever standing outside the palace of opera, with your nose pressed against the window but uncertain how to find the front door, you could do a lot worse than pick up one or more of these entertaining and enthusiastic audio guides." --CLASSIC FM

"There is simply no better introduction to the intricacies and structure of opera than this series from Naxos..." --AD-LIB

Tristan und Isolde centres around two lovers who dream of romantic love and yearn for oblivion. No composer had written such a work before. Turning his back on traditional tonality, Wagner changed the course of Western music with Tristan und Isolde. But there's also fact behind the fiction: while he wrote his opera Wagner was in love with another's man's wife, Mathilde Wesendonk. So Tristan and Isolde are also Richard and Mathilde. Christopher Cook explores the making of a masterpiece, the story of lovers gripped by a passion that can only be consummated beyond the grave, a forbidden love that is blind to duty, honour and social obligation.

About the Author: Christopher Cook Christopher Cook broadcasts regularly on BBC Radios 3, 4 and 5. He has written and presented Opera on 3 and Morning Performance for Radio 3, and presented Performance on 3 and Prom concerts. As well as reviewing for Radio 3Â’s CD Review, Christopher writes and reviews for International Record Review, The Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. His particular musical interests are bel canto and German Romantic opera.

About Sean Barrett: Sean Barrett started acting as a boy on BBC children’s television in the days before colour, when it went out live. He grew up through Z Cars, Armchair Theatre, Minder and Father Ted. His theatre credits include Peter Pan at the old Scala Theatre and Noël Coward’s Suite in 3 Keys in the West End. Films include War & Peace, Dunkirk and A Cry from the Streets. He was a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company. For Naxos AudioBooks he features in Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, The Voice of the Buddha, Canterbury Tales III and Kafka on the Shore, and for Naxos Educational he plays Dvorák in Dvorák: His Life and Works.