The story of Tristan and Isolde from the Celtic mythology of the British Isles was first literaryised in an Old French verse epic around the middle of the 12th century. In the 70s, Thomas of Brittany wrote his Tristan novel. The Middle High German verse epic “Tristan and Isolde” by Gottfried von Strasbourg (around 1210) is based on this fragmentary Old French work.
Not only 30 complete and fragmentary manuscripts have survived, but countless other testimonies in words and images and above all in music throughout Europe, from the 13th century to the present day, bear witness to the extraordinary success of the Tristan story. How can this phenomenon be explained? What is the magic of this story – this psychologically consistent and realistically portrayed tale of a great love?
Musical reading with music by the German scholar Max Siller and the ensemble Rosarum flores with Markus Forster (alto)
Idea, concept and moderation: Ilse Strauß and Franz Gratl
