De Waart opened with the shimmering blue light of the Prelude to Act I of "Lohengrin." This wasn't always tidy, but the conductor understands that the secret of the heavenly stasis of this music is to keep it moving.
Then the distinguished and glamorous mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier came on stage to sing the erotic songs that Wagner wrote on texts by Mathilde Wesendonck, a married woman who was the composer's patroness and landlady. His feelings for her, requited or not, led to some of the most passionate love music ever written, "Tristan und Isolde."
Meier and de Waart spoke at Harvard University earlier in the week and scarcely ever agreed about anything. The event was amusing and informative, sometimes in unintentional ways; the singer seemed oblivious to how diva-centric her world is. In the performance, however, they were on the same page.
Sometimes these songs are used for heavy lifting, especially when sopranos perform them with orchestra rather than with piano. Meier sang them quietly and personally, and sometimes more quickly than usual -- this enabled her to phrase and color the texts instead of proclaiming them from the rooftops. She was particularly effective in the oppressive hothouse atmosphere of the third song, and her work was ably abetted by de Waart and the solo viola of Steven Ansell.
Sometimes, in the other songs, she was so intelligent and tasteful that she became paradoxically uninteresting; she didn't need to be louder, but she might have drawn on more of the colors in her voice.
