“This work belongs on every stage.” (Eleonore Büning, FAZ)

Frank Martin’s secular oratorio Le Vin herbé – based on Joseph Bédier’s novel Romance of Tristan and Iseult – will be performed today and on 1 and 9 October at the Chicago Opera Theater.

After its first staged performance at the 1948 Salzburg Festival a critic of the Neues Österreich newspaper described the work as “A Tristan with a difference”. The concert version had already been premièred six years previously in Zurich. In its more than 60-year history Le vin herbé has enjoyed countless concert performances and several staged productions. 

Le Vin herbé at the Chicago Opera Theater