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Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde) is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg, which in turn was based on the story of Tristan and Iseult as told in French by Thomas of Britain. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and received its first performance, conducted by Hans von Bülow, in Munich on 10 June 1865. Many Wagnerian critics of the time claimed that the musical portion of the opera attained the highest summit of all music; on the other hand, an equally influential group of critics, centered around Eduard Hanslick, condemned the work as being incomprehensible.