'The Love Potion': Tristan and Isolde, the Long Beach Opera way

Long Beach Opera took a risk by presenting "Le Vin Herbé" (The Love Potion), composer Frank Martin's elegant Gallic take on the medieval legend of doomed lovers Tristan and Isolde, in a 1,500-seat Art Deco movie palace. The 1941 oratorio, after all, emphasizes intimacy over grandeur.

But in the...