Anna Werle, who is singing the role of Brangäne in our production of ‘Tristan und Isolde’ later this year, brings us Wagner’s ‘Der Engel’, the first song from a set of five composed to poems by long-time muse Mathilde Wesendonck. Wagner himself saw these as ‘studies’ for ‘Tristan und Isolde’ which premiered some eight years later.

‘Wesendonck-Lieder’, together with the ‘Siegfried Idyll’, are two non-operatic works by Wagner that are most regularly performed.