Remember the
Furtwängler Tristan, the
Böhm Tristan, the
Kleiber Tristan, or any of the other great Tristans of the past 50 years? If you do, the first thing you remember about them is who did the conducting. Does anyone remember the
Suthaus Tristan or the
Windgassen Tristan or the
Kollo Tristan? No: as important as the singers are, they are not nearly as important as the conductor in Tristan und Isolde. Indeed, it could fairly be said that the great
Furtwängler,
Böhm, and
Kleiber Tristans succeeded even though, in every case, the weakest member of the cast was the tenor.