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Tristan Und Isolde ORIGINAL Poster 1981 Seattle Opera SIGNED ARTIST & FULL CAST

$ 237.6

Availability: 100 in stock
  • Item must be returned within: 30 Days
  • Refund will be given as: Money Back
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
  • Original/Reproduction: Original
  • Restocking Fee: No
  • Size: 38¼" x 17¼"
  • All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
  • Modification Description: Signatures, Framed
  • Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
  • Genre: Classical, Opera & Ballet
  • Modified Item: Yes

    Description

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    RARE! Truly an item that deserves that descriptor, with the signatures of the ARTIST and EVERY ONE of the eight cast members from those March 1981 performances!
    Artist DAVID KREITZER signed and dated his signature on March 21, 1981. This is an ORIGINAL FIRST PRINTING of this RARE poster by Artist DAVID KREITZER signed.
    Every cast member, all 8, also signed in the same open space to the left of the figures. Some added the name of their character, others added inscriptions. Several are now deceased. The list:
    EDWARD SOOTER -Tristan;
    JOHANNA MEIER - Isolde;
    NANCY WILLIAMS - Brangaene;
    RICHARD J CLARK - Kurwenal;
    ARCHIE DRAKE - King Marke;
    JOHN DUYKERS - Melot;
    PAUL LASH - Sailor / Shepherd;
    ERICH PARCE - Steersman
    Aluminum & glass framed in the early 1980s. Weighs near 10 pounds. Was purchased years ago at a home sale, has never been removed from the frame.
    Will be shipped USPS Priority Mail, insured to the full purchase price.
    Poster history from the internet:
    Kreitzer, an opera lover (he's especially fond of Wagner) who's been married to two operatic sopranos, gets a good chuckle out of the idea that he may go down in regional art history as the guy who painted the hot "Tristan und Isolde" image. Kreitzer usually paints realistic landscapes. In this area, his landscapes are shown at Nelson/Rovzar Gallery in Kirkland.
    Kreitzer lives near Morro Bay on California's central coast, and his work is sold by dealers in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere. But it was his passion for opera that led to the "Tristan und Isolde" poster, not to mention both his wives.
    In 1979 he came to Seattle to see the opera perform Wagner's "Ring Cycle," and by luck he met someone who introduced him to Jean Cook, a dramatic soprano who was in the production. They later married. At her encouragement, he made several paintings or drawings that the opera turned into posters. He did the images for the opera's 1981-82 season: "Siegfried" in 1982 and "Manon Lescaut" in 1981.
    But his "Tristan und Isolde" painting became so popular that Kreitzer was soon getting calls from rock radio stations wanting to interview him about what it all meant.
    Though the lovers appear to be sleeping, the poster captures the moment when Tristan, the young knight, is already dead, and Isolde is waiting to die of a broken heart. She has already sung the "Liebestod," one of the most hauntingly beautiful soprano arias ever written, and this being 19th-century German opera, she dies soon after. The scene depicts the climax of the opera, the moment after Isolde finishes her aria, with all its romantic, theatrical and sexual overtones.
    With their fabulously curly and matching tresses floating behind them as though in water (images of the dead Ophelia come to mind), it's obvious that death or its imminence has only made the pair even more gorgeous. His muscled shoulders and her exposed throat and cleavage lend added sensuousness to the image's sinuous composition.