Two songs from Winterreise. (Shawn Thuris and Robert Edward Thies; Fairfield, CT; March, 2012)

18. Der stürmische Morgen (The Stormy Morning)
How the storm rends the sky’s gray cloth! The cloud-shreds flutter about in damp strife, and red tongues of flame appear between—I call that a morning just right for me. My heart sees painted in the heavens its very image: it is nothing but winter…the winter, cold and fierce.

19. Täuschung (Delusion)
A light dances amiably before me, and I follow it over hill and dale. I follow gladly as it seduces this wanderer. Ah! Whoever is this miserable, gives himself over willingly to the pretty lie…that beyond the ice and night and horror there beckons a bright, warm house and a loving soul within. Success for me comes only through delusion.

Shawn Thuris in an excerpt from Act 2, scene 2 of Tristan und Isolde. (Tristan is saying, in essence, that if he willingly dies for the sake of their love, then their love cannot die.)

Tristan agrees to drink the potion, although he expects to die from it. (From Act 1.)

Shawn Thuris in an excerpt from Tristan und Isolde, Act 2 sc 3. Tristan invites Isolde to follow him to “the land of night”.