Spazju Kreattiv presents an encore performance of the Met Opera’s Tristan und Isolde tomorrow in Valletta.

Richard Wagner’s opera is a breathtaking meditation on love and death that holds a unique place in the opera world. Its music has astounded, infuriated and inspired since it was first heard back in 1865 at the Munich Court Theatre. The title roles are regarded to be among the most extraordinarily demanding in opera.

Tomorrow’s performance is conducted by world-renowned Simon Rattle and features Swedish Nina Stemme in the role of Isolde and Stuart Skelton as Tristan. Stemme, considered to be one of the finest Wagnerian sopranos nowadays, commented on the challenge of this part saying that “singing Isolde requires a sort of state of being. You have to enter the Tristan and Isolde world completely. You have to give it a hundred per cent all the time. It’s a big journey. It’s a marathon”.

The vocal challenges, the symphonic scale of the orchestral writing, and the mystical nature of the story, with its opportunities for creative visual design, make this work a phenomenon of the repertory.

The opera was enormously influential with Western classical composers, providing direct inspiration to Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schönberg and Benjamin Britten, among many.

■ Tristan und Isolde screens tomorrow at 2.30pm at St James Cavalier in Valletta. The opera is in German and will be screened with English subtitles. For more information or tickets, visit kreattivita.org. Block tickets for the Met Opera Season are also available.