Synopsis

Celebrating the bicentenary of Richard Wagner, Tom Service is present at the Royal Albert Hall for a concert performance of *Tristan und Isolde*, the opera that irrevocably shaped the course of modern music. Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with Violeta Urmana and Robert Dean Smith embodying the lovers drawn toward the allure of death. Service speaks with writer and Wagner scholar Philip Hensher, while the conductor and cast discuss the immense physical and emotional demands p