Federation Concert Hall, Hobart
November 22, 2016

The clapping never ceases. I’m on my feet and can just see the stage through the crowd, pulsing with hundreds of slamming hands. It’s been at least three minutes of continuous applause, and shows no sign of concluding as our soloists return to the stage for countless ‘final’ bows. Whistles and calls of ‘bravo’ sound from all corners of the concert hall, and the musicians are beaming.

This is the way the night ends when the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra presents Wagner’s epic love story Tristan und Isolde. To call it a ‘huge success’ is accurate, yet grossly understated – it is a world-class marathon of continuous song and music from a collection of our generation’s finest performers.

Downsized from its regular five-hour duration into a two-hour concoction (of the best bits), the TSO’s Tristan und Isolde takes us through an explosive drama of two lovers who should never have been. Three abridged acts are sung in German by Nina Stemme (Isolde), Stuart Skelton (Tristan) and Monika Bohinec (Brangane). Marko Letonja conducts the orchestra and the men of the TSO Chorus make brief appearances.

The music opens with the Prelude, appropriately spaced and surprisingly restrained – after...