Le Vin herbé review – swords and bows

Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Tristan and Iseult share the stage with the band in Polly Graham’s valiant Welsh National Opera staging of an operatic rarityLe Vin herbé is not an opera, it’s a “secular oratorio”, composed by the Swiss composer Frank Martin between 1938 and 1941 for 25 chorus members, eight soloists, two violins, two violas, two cellos, a double bass and a piano. It’s an interpretation of the medieval legend of Tristan and Iseult, the tale of adul