Tristan

Legendary Celtic hero of a tragic romance. He fell in love with Isolde, the bride he was sent to win for his uncle King Mark of Cornwall. The story became part of the Arthurian cycle and is the subject of Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde (1865).

According to tradition, a magic love potion intended for the bridal pair, was mistakenly given to Tristan and Isolde, binding them with an everlasting love. They resorted to various ruses to meet secretly, but eventually Tristan left the country for Brittany and married another woman, Isolde of the White Hands, though it was only a marriage in name. Wounded by a poisoned weapon, Tristan sent for his true love, as she alone could save him. The returning ship was to hoist white sails if it bore his lover; black if it returned without her. White sails appeared, but Tristan's jealous wife reported seeing black and Tristan died of despair; Iseult died of grief at his side. Two trees grew and intertwined from their graves.

The earliest versions of the story, remodelled from Celtic source material, are the 12th-century romances of the Anglo-Norman poet Thomas (lost except for derivatives) and Béroul, and Gottfried von Strassburg's 13th-century epic Tristan und Isolde. The tale contains Pictish names, and Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Irish elements and parallels.

Tristan

Work by Henze for piano, tape, and orchestra. Composed in 1973, it was first performed in London on 20 October 1974 (conducted by Davis).