ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the press reception of performances of Tristan und Isolde by the Berlin Staatsoper in occupied Paris in the context of the historically difficult and polarizing relations between Wagner and the French. The success of the Staatsoper's Tristan performances was the culmination of a century of shifting Wagner reception in France, and it mirrored the policy and practices of political collaboration to an extraordinary degree. Despite growing political instability and general unease in relation to Germany in the 1930s, performances of Wagner works made up an astoundingly large percentage of the Opera's repertoire, peaking at 28 per cent in 1933 and then remaining between 14 per cent and 23 per cent for the rest of the decade. These figures have been calculated according to the number of Opera performances of Wagner works rather than according to the number of works.
