This is it, I’ve been searching for years, it’s been my sole mission in life: to search for the last piece of music I’d listen to before going deaf. This is it...the one piece to end it all.
Waltraud Meier. I wish she were named & given the credit for this in the description of the video. She truly has the inner Valkyrie singing through her.
From the first notes you can see that Isolde is already moving to another plane of existence in Meier's physical expression as well as her siingularly beautiful and emotionally perfect singing. This is perfornance at the pinnacle of musical magnificence.
I was thinking about what I'd liked played at my end....This is high on my list... I also love Fauré's Req. To be fair Wagner's music touches my soul, if there is such a thing....
spent twenty years of my life deeply invested in all kinds of music, popular to obscure, old to new, electronic to performed, experimental to traditional, western to the remotest folk traditions. I've listened to tens of thousands of musical performances from a hundred cultures. this right here is in my opinion one of the greatest musical works ever created and I've had this opinion for a long time.
I do not think I could agree more. This might be it-the perfect balance between heart and mind as Schoenberg described in all great art. A total Masterwork-ageless and we still are moved by it and marvel at it.
Wow! Please excuse my figure of speech but that lady should get an Oscar for that performance, as not only was it exquisitely vocally rendered but every emotional second was expressed and lived to the full. Waltraud Meier is the best Isode I have ever seen. What more can I possibly say?
When I was a child, my father would put the headsets on me and play this aria. When he died 3 years ago, he asked my mom to keep playing this as he peacefully embraced his eternal rest .
MARC, THERE ARE MANY PINNACLES IN THE MOUNTAIN RANGES OF MUSICAL TOPOGRAPHY, BACH, MOZART, MONTEVERDI, INUMERABLE PINNACLES. BUT IT IS A MILESTONE SURELY
Stunning woman with a face MADE for theater. She sings the piece like a song. Simple and direct...almost like an ecstatic dream. A lesson in how a brilliant singing actress can surmount occasional vocal limitations (let's be honest) to deliver a performance of extraordinary depth.
The best I’ve heard yet. I agree, with all due respect to the amazing Divas who have tackled this magnificently haunting and complex piece. Who is this singer?
Isolde was an Irish princess. I send this video to friends on March 17 and wish them a "Happy Highbrow St. Patrick's Day." Everyone in this world needs to hear this.
This is definitely the best Isolde I've ever SEEN, the acting is everything! The best I've ever heard is probably Flagstad, whose voice is so full and not sheep-ish.
INCREDIBLE!!! ... what an outstanding performance. Wagner would say: ...Waltraud Meier is my Isolde. Thanks for uploading this Video ....I am watching this nearly every day.
This is the gold standard of Wagnerian interpretations. All apologies to Ms Norman - may she rest in peace... But Waltraud is the best Wagnerian soprano of this century. The vibrato at 6:15 is perfection.
This century? You probably mean the last century and I have to disagree. She was one of the best, but there were many really got wagnerian sopranos, like Nilsson, Flagstad and so on.
I agree. I love Brigit Nilsson, but the passion is with Waltraud Meier. You can feel the billowing torrent and supreme delight. I am totally engulfed with chills every time I hear it.
I teared listening to this. The best performance of the Liebestod and the best of Meier's interpretations. This piece and this performance is the zenith of humanity's greatest musical achievements. Music is a transfer of artistic emotional power through sound. Meier does this perfectly - I truly felt for Isolde's tragic end.
This is a remarkable performance. Her powerful voice resounds with feeling. She communicates the character's pain with great sensitivity and depth. Tremendous. I believe someone wrote that this performer is Joan Sutherland but I think it actually is Waltraud Meier. My apologies if I am incorrect on this.
You're absolutely correct about the performer and the quality of the performance. The character is not in pain, though. Although this is familiarly known as the 'Liebestod' - 'love of death' - it's not a phrase Wagner himself ever used. For him - and he was into a spot of Eastern mysticism - Isolde is transfiguring; moving toward a higher plane where she will be reunited with Tristan.
Absolutely correct. This is definitely not Joan Sutherland, who I heard live several times. The timbre, the vocal approach, and the emotional involvement are all Waltraud's doing. Sutherland had recorded this late in her career and it is good but nothing like this.
I'm a big music lover since I remember myself... Classical music is my all-time passion. And I must confess that this particular masterpiece is the ultimate one of what the Music is itself. Certainly God blessed one
MY GRANDMOTHER ,A JULIARD TRAINED CONTRA-ALTO,WHO SANG WAGNER,she said,''''there is something,a power unknown which comes over you when you sing wagner,''this lady encompasses this from about 4:00 on,thank you waltraud
@@anna_thema3732 OMG! Didn't know that. Loved BB. And there's Downton Abbey movie too. I'm just recovering from seeing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood twice (so far). Wagnerian in its own way.
This is the best Isolde ever... Wow!! Incredible! I almost could feel her emotion thru my whole body. I almost could not breath for fear that this aria will be coming to an end. Bravo !!
I think this my favorite rendition of this portion of Wagner'sTristan. Who is this Diva? I can't get enough of the exquisite beauty with which she portrays this absolutely beautiful expression to perfection
WALTRAUD MEIER The 20 Greatest Wagner Singers of All Time The finest exponents of the German master's operas from the 1920s to the present day. by Clive Paget on 16 October, 2013 @@gordonmcconnell4527 ( please read here about her )
Sparkling ecstasy in Wagner's tragic Finale of Tristan und Isolde - shall I breathe, soll ich lauschen? Shall I listen? Soll ich schlürfen, Shall I drink, untertauchen? immerse? Süß in Düften Sweetly in fragrances mich verhauchen? melt away? In dem wogenden Schwall, In the billowing torrent, in dem tönenden Schall, in the resonating sound, in des Welt-Atems wehendem All --- in the wafting Universe of the World-Breath --- ertrinken, drown, versinken --- be engulfed --- unbewußt --- unconscious --- höchste Lust! supreme delight!
I'm German, and I've not realised the full extent of the incredible beauty of these lyrics. The English is a literal translation, but these German rhymes are incredibly powerful, just wow.
Really we are in the precense of a sex-love act ... Isolda imagine that is possesed by her lover ... we know her inner feelings in the huge orchrestra description ... her words are not full of pain ... they are full of joy!!! ... Meier not only sings ... she feels how love flows into her ... the climax is wonderful ...
Waltraute Meyer is a pure force of nature, a hurricane of emotional sound, projected by flawless technique and fierce intelligence. This is art... Thank you!
absolument magique, et quand cette voix puissante et belle couvre l'orchestre déjà fortissimo, j'ai la chair de poule et des larmes aux yeux. en plus on voit très très bien, avec ce plan fixe et rapproché, le travail de toute la tête vers 5'23 : extraordinaire
I have been to several live concerts of T & I over the years as well as listening to these recorded versions and IMHO no other singer comes close to this Waltraud performance. It brings tears to my eyes every time. Thank you for posting it
Don't understand why some people need to compare Meier with Flagstad or Patti Page for that matter. This is merely a wonderful performance by a great Wagnerian soprano. Can't we just leave it at that?
one of the best best opera productions ever, an immense Isolde. this is Tristan, my friends!! I must quote Nietzsche:“Tristan and Isolde is the real opus metaphysicum of all art. . . insatiable and sweet craving for the secrets of night and death. . . it is overpowering in its simple grandeur”, “Even now I am still in search of a work which exercises such a dangerous fascination, such a spine-tingling and blissful infinity as Tristan - I have sought in vain, in every art.
What can you say? This piece it completely capturing the transcendence of Love and Death I love the way she immediately moves away from Tristan - and basically is transfixed at that remote fixpoint of Death during the entire act. This is about something that transcends human love - and that is why this music still today remains so powerful and captivating
What a composer, what a voice! Much more to do with death than love, kind of strange because the Siegfried death scene is so much more about love than death. I guess Wagner couldn't wrestle the two apart!
My biggest problem with Wagner if deciding which of his compositions I like most. This one is so emotionally draining - it really pulls at the heartstrings - in a good way. I've always adored Kirsten Flagstad, but it's a good thing that contemporaries are singing this piece with aplomb! Very enjoyable.
My kudos to you, and you're a lucky man. You have many years of coming back to this, as I do every few months or so. This performance of one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed is one for the ages.
![เปิดบ้านสุดหรู "เเจ็ค the ghost" ลั่นถ้าป๋องกพลลำบากผมเลี้ยงเอง!! l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1xbW4vULqGc/mqdefault.jpg)
The kind of music which rips you apart, only to put you back together as a more complete human being.
Yeah that
Well said.
Shut up
Indeed well said .................................
贊同你的說法，撕心裂肺的悲痛，經由旋律和吟唱，深深滲透我們的心～～
This is it, I’ve been searching for years, it’s been my sole mission in life: to search for the last piece of music I’d listen to before going deaf. This is it...the one piece to end it all.
i hope you're doing fine, sir. good choice btw
Waltraud Meier. I wish she were named & given the credit for this in the description of the video. She truly has the inner Valkyrie singing through her.
Yes, why on earth isn’t her name here? Strange!
Who is the handsome man too?
Thank you, since I like to know the performer. She's great.
She really is Isolde. Such a transcendent performance.
After this - close YT, no more music, no more words, close the day, ...
The greatest of all Wagnerian sopranos. period.
I'm not one to rank, but this was perfect.🥹👍
This is the most beautiful song I have ever heard in my life, the ending literally shakes my soul and I weep like a child
Wunderschöner Gesang☺️👍und trauriges Lied😥
From the first notes you can see that Isolde is already moving to another plane of existence in Meier's physical expression as well as her siingularly beautiful and emotionally perfect singing. This is perfornance at the pinnacle of musical magnificence.
That ending is truly euphoric... I might listen to this on my death bed... Pure Heaven
I was thinking about what I'd liked played at my end....This is high on my list... I also love Fauré's Req. To be fair Wagner's music touches my soul, if there is such a thing....
A beautiful Liebestod, like that one, always leaves me in tears...
This or Erik Satie "Gynopedie"
I have a list of music to be played at my end. A lot of it is Wagner.
Either this or now we are free the gladiator theme is my death bed music
5:56 That minor chord kills me every single time.
spent twenty years of my life deeply invested in all kinds of music, popular to obscure, old to new, electronic to performed, experimental to traditional, western to the remotest folk traditions. I've listened to tens of thousands of musical performances from a hundred cultures. this right here is in my opinion one of the greatest musical works ever created and I've had this opinion for a long time.
I do not think I could agree more. This might be it-the perfect balance between heart and mind as Schoenberg described in all great art. A total Masterwork-ageless and we still are moved by it and marvel at it.
Wow! Please excuse my figure of speech but that lady should get an Oscar for that performance, as not only was it exquisitely vocally rendered but every emotional second was expressed and lived to the full. Waltraud Meier is the best Isode I have ever seen. What more can I possibly say?
yes, yes, yes....
Yes she is the best Isolde I have ever heard and seen. It's a privilege to listen to this.
Jes W
In my mind Waltraud Meier is the one true Isolde out there.
Wagner would have been very pleased.
It would be a tony award
When I was a child, my father would put the headsets on me and play this aria. When he died 3 years ago, he asked my mom to keep playing this as he peacefully embraced his eternal rest .
Beautiful story. Shameful pseudonym ruins the impact.
@@corriepitt7630 What’s wrong, you don’t like DeNiro Movies?
@@youfuckmywife6719 You seriously think this phrase is what makes Bobby DeNiro great and memorable. You’ve missed the match, mate.
ladies and gentlemen, behold! Possibly the greatest Liebestod that this earth shall ever be witness to. If perfection exists - this is it
The greatest music ever written, sung in the greatest way. The pinnacle of human achievement.
+Marc Hirst lets not get to swept away Monteverdi Poppea just to name one opera piece, and many more.... but one of them....
MARC, THERE ARE MANY PINNACLES IN THE MOUNTAIN RANGES OF MUSICAL TOPOGRAPHY, BACH, MOZART, MONTEVERDI, INUMERABLE PINNACLES. BUT IT IS A MILESTONE SURELY
you gotta explore Bach :)
No - Marc is right - among the greatest written. Baroque music can't hold evoke the same range of emotions.
Totally agree. Tristan und Isolde is the top of Everest in terms of music.
7 minutes of heart shattering emotion from a Master and an Angel singing shed
Tears over this
Stunning woman with a face MADE for theater. She sings the piece like a song. Simple and direct...almost like an ecstatic dream. A lesson in how a brilliant singing actress can surmount occasional vocal limitations (let's be honest) to deliver a performance of extraordinary depth.
The best I’ve heard yet.
I agree, with all due respect to the amazing Divas who have tackled this magnificently haunting and complex piece.
Who is this singer?
@@pamelajoy6037 Waltraud Meier.
Always brings me to tears.
Ah, for me the definitive Isolde! I come back, and back to this and it never fails to move me! A glimpse of Heaven! Veilen dank Herr Wagner!
This is heavenly on so many levels - tears of rapturous pathos
Isolde was an Irish princess. I send this video to friends on March 17 and wish them a "Happy Highbrow St. Patrick's Day." Everyone in this world needs to hear this.
Que maravilla, no entiendo nada lo que canta, pero me hipnotiza con su grandiosa voz. Que gran privilegio cantar así.
I’ve listened to this 30 times today.
The very best Isolde l have ever heard. Brava. Perfecto.
I agree.
My all time favourite TH-cam clip. This is mindblowingly beautiful. What a performance!
This is definitely the best Isolde I've ever SEEN, the acting is everything! The best I've ever heard is probably Flagstad, whose voice is so full and not sheep-ish.
Absolutely stunning video of Meier. She is an amazing mezzo soprano and absolutely beautiful!
The best Liebestod ever!!! Absolutly fantastic,Meier and Mehta are in godlike shape here. Indeed,best tempi and timing of phrasing that is possible.
INCREDIBLE!!! ... what an outstanding performance. Wagner would say: ...Waltraud Meier is my Isolde. Thanks for uploading this Video ....I am watching this nearly every day.
Pure genius Tristan is. Meier is unreal here. She is a complete artist way beyond just technique which is of course superlative.
This is the gold standard of Wagnerian interpretations. All apologies to Ms Norman - may she rest in peace... But Waltraud is the best Wagnerian soprano of this century. The vibrato at 6:15 is perfection.
This century? You probably mean the last century and I have to disagree.
She was one of the best, but there were many really got wagnerian sopranos, like Nilsson, Flagstad and so on.
Nop, sorry , NILSSON was the best !!!
Waltraud Meier ! I love this her performance most.
I agree. I love Brigit Nilsson, but the passion is with Waltraud Meier. You can feel the billowing torrent and supreme delight. I am totally engulfed with chills every time I hear it.
so incredibly beautiful!
The Best voice
Profound music that rips your heart apart . . . tears streaming down my face
That ending always gets me.
It's so perfect and beautiful.
I teared listening to this. The best performance of the Liebestod and the best of Meier's interpretations. This piece and this performance is the zenith of humanity's greatest musical achievements. Music is a transfer of artistic emotional power through sound. Meier does this perfectly - I truly felt for Isolde's tragic end.
Dan, I agree with you. This was the best performance of the Liebestod I have ever heard.
I listened to "Liebestod" one million times and always cry.
The best wagnerian soprano!! Her voice is so moving and powerful. No one like her...
Ich liebe den Teil zwischen 4.15 und 5.30, es ist so intensiv, und ich bekomme Gänsehaut jedes Mal.
+Илия Илиев Прекрасна оперна певица!!!
the most powerful thing i have ever seen.
This is a remarkable performance. Her powerful voice resounds with feeling. She communicates the character's pain with great sensitivity and depth. Tremendous.
I believe someone wrote that this performer is Joan Sutherland but I think it actually is Waltraud Meier. My apologies if I am incorrect on this.
+Penelope Miller couldn't agree more. And yes, you're right, the soprano is Waltraud Meier :)
You're absolutely correct about the performer and the quality of the performance.
The character is not in pain, though. Although this is familiarly known as the 'Liebestod' - 'love of death' - it's not a phrase Wagner himself ever used. For him - and he was into a spot of Eastern mysticism - Isolde is transfiguring; moving toward a higher plane where she will be reunited with Tristan.
Magic.
If you are a big fan of Wagner generally and Meier specifically, you need to check out Kundry's seduction from Parsifal performed by her.
Absolutely correct. This is definitely not Joan Sutherland, who I heard live several times. The timbre, the vocal approach, and the emotional involvement are all Waltraud's doing. Sutherland had recorded this late in her career and it is good but nothing like this.
I'm a big music lover since I remember myself... Classical music is my all-time passion. And I must confess that this particular masterpiece is the ultimate one of what the Music is itself. Certainly God blessed one
Every time I hear this, my tears flow like a river.
MY GRANDMOTHER ,A JULIARD TRAINED CONTRA-ALTO,WHO SANG WAGNER,she said,''''there is something,a power unknown which comes over you when you sing wagner,''this lady encompasses this from about 4:00 on,thank you waltraud
The best ever❤
A truly breathtaking and sensitive performance. The best version on the liebestod that I've heard.
wonderful, simply wonderful!
I absolutely love her!
Brava Waltraud!
No he visto ni escuchado una mejor Isolda. la Meier le pone voz de mezzo -como debe ser-, amor, dulzura,pasion y alma. ¡BRAVO!
Absolutely masterful
What an Isolde !
From 5:45 - 6:38, one of my all-time favourite/beautiful musical moments
Thanks for sharing this.
Mikey Nichs I've been told the two oboes at the very end represent Tristan & Isolde.
hey bro there's a Breaking Bad movie coming out :)
I really dig 1:05 - 1:34 too. Heavenly.
@@anna_thema3732 OMG! Didn't know that. Loved BB. And there's Downton Abbey movie too. I'm just recovering from seeing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood twice (so far). Wagnerian in its own way.
Capricious Capricorn Wow! I’m so glad I commented... it’s actually coming out mid October :)
This is the best Isolde ever... Wow!! Incredible! I almost could feel her emotion thru my whole body. I almost could not breath for fear that this aria will be coming to an end. Bravo !!
I think this my favorite rendition of this portion of Wagner'sTristan. Who is this Diva? I can't get enough of the exquisite beauty with which she portrays this absolutely beautiful expression to perfection
WALTRAUD MEIER The 20 Greatest Wagner Singers of All Time
The finest exponents of the German master's operas from the 1920s to the present day.
by Clive Paget on 16 October, 2013
@@gordonmcconnell4527 ( please read here about her )
großartig!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is inspiring. My heart becomes full for a while! Greetings from Greece,
oh my, the most perfect wagnerian singer i have ever heard, thankyou so much for posting, still have tears in my eyes from this
I am speakles by hearing this...so beautiful.
Sparkling ecstasy in Wagner's tragic Finale of Tristan und Isolde
- shall I breathe,
soll ich lauschen? Shall I listen?
Soll ich schlürfen, Shall I drink,
untertauchen? immerse?
Süß in Düften Sweetly in fragrances
mich verhauchen? melt away?
In dem wogenden Schwall, In the billowing torrent,
in dem tönenden Schall, in the resonating sound,
in des Welt-Atems wehendem All --- in the wafting Universe of the World-Breath ---
ertrinken, drown,
versinken --- be engulfed ---
unbewußt --- unconscious ---
höchste Lust! supreme delight!
the best translation I've ever seen. Makes some sense out of the inexpressible that Wagner tried to express for a love tragedy.
I'm German, and I've not realised the full extent of the incredible beauty of these lyrics. The English is a literal translation, but these German rhymes are incredibly powerful, just wow.
shlurfen -> slurp
Words fail me this is so incredibly beautiful.ii listen to it almost daily.thank you waltraud
Really we are in the precense of a sex-love act ... Isolda imagine that is possesed by her lover ... we know her inner feelings in the huge orchrestra description ... her words are not full of pain ... they are full of joy!!! ... Meier not only sings ... she feels how love flows into her ... the climax is wonderful ...
Opera, especially Wagner’s Opera’s touches the deepest Recesses of my soul! I never knew how dead I was before I discovered my love for opera!
I watch and listen in awe.
“I’ll break your heart..” “already broken”
this is simply amazing, sheer perfection of human ability to transform emotion into music..
Waltraute Meyer is a pure force of nature, a hurricane of emotional sound, projected by flawless technique and fierce intelligence. This is art... Thank you!
fawk. listening to this during an all nighter for a music history test, and i still love it.
absolument magique, et quand cette voix puissante et belle couvre l'orchestre déjà fortissimo, j'ai la chair de poule et des larmes aux yeux. en plus on voit très très bien, avec ce plan fixe et rapproché, le travail de toute la tête vers 5'23 : extraordinaire
The source material says Isolde died of heartbreak. Wagner turned that on it's head and made it the ultimate victory of love. What a wizard.
Many thanks for uploading this remarkable performance.
Such a physical performance: Her eyes and the veins in her neck manipulate my heart as much as does her beautiful voice.
Apreciando essa obra de arte em 2024
I have been to several live concerts of T & I over the years as well as listening to these recorded versions and IMHO no other singer comes close to this Waltraud performance. It brings tears to my eyes every time. Thank you for posting it
Every time! Her divine voice and the music climbing-flutters in my stomach and my pulse getting faster.
Don't understand why some people need to compare Meier with Flagstad or Patti Page for that matter. This is merely a wonderful performance by a great Wagnerian soprano. Can't we just leave it at that?
Perfect in every sense. It was worth living for watching and listening this masterful and wonderful performance of this masterpiece of humankind.
This is the kind of thing that can make anyone want to get up and find out what all that goddamn opera fuss is about.
Perfection.. My favorite Wagner - and she delivers it all....
She is Waltraud Meier, a marvellous german singer. I love the way she sings and she is a great actress too. In fact, she "is" Isolde.
She even looks like an Irish Princess with her Red hair... Brava!
Wonderful
one of the best best opera productions ever, an immense Isolde. this is Tristan, my friends!! I must quote Nietzsche:“Tristan and Isolde is the real opus metaphysicum of all art. . . insatiable and sweet craving for the secrets of night and death. . . it is overpowering in its simple grandeur”, “Even now I am still in search of a work which exercises such a dangerous fascination, such a spine-tingling and blissful infinity as Tristan - I have sought in vain, in every art.
Ahhh. I loveeee the very last chord. Gives me goosebumps everytime.
What can you say? This piece it completely capturing the transcendence of Love and Death
I love the way she immediately moves away from Tristan - and basically is transfixed at that remote fixpoint of Death during the entire act.
This is about something that transcends human love - and that is why this music still today remains so powerful and captivating
Gorgeous.
What a composer, what a voice! Much more to do with death than love, kind of strange because the Siegfried death scene is so much more about love than death. I guess Wagner couldn't wrestle the two apart!
May your ears be filled with beautiful music like this for the rest of your life!
simply beautiful, I never get tired of hearing this!
It's more than acting and her voice is outstanding. I'm surfing out of space
M'm not sure what has entranced me more, the talent of Wagner and this sopranos voice, or the incredibly specific faces she's making.
Magnifique! Magnifique! Magnifique!
Wonderful-thank you.
I'm not ashamed to say that I listened to this and wept.
So beautiful it brought tears to my eyes
I 'm watching this every day, highest bliss, mad love, she's amazing!
This is as good as it gets.
Many thanks. She is absolutely superb.
Wonderful. Would bring tears to a glass eye.
When a human, art, energy and thought ALL become ONE...
So, so beautiful. Gets me every single time
My biggest problem with Wagner if deciding which of his compositions I like most. This one is so emotionally draining - it really pulls at the heartstrings - in a good way. I've always adored Kirsten Flagstad, but it's a good thing that contemporaries are singing this piece with aplomb! Very enjoyable.
Divine singing and acting!
My kudos to you, and you're a lucky man. You have many years of coming back to this, as I do every few months or so. This performance of one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed is one for the ages.