TANNHÄUSER • BERLIN
★★★★★☆
Photo: Bettina Stöß
REVIEW TANNHÄUSER: THE PROSTITUTE-MADONNA COMPLEX REVISITED IN BERLIN
Tannhäuser is a historical figure, a kind of singer-poet from the 14th century, who is caught in a dilemma so eternal that it is completely modern. Star tenor Claus Florian Voigt delivers a dazzling performance in Kirsten Harms’ spectacular staging of Wagner’s pseudo-biographical masterpiece at the Deutsche Oper.
To the strains of the majestic overture, a knight in silvery medieval armour descends from the ceiling in sci-fi-like, weightless slow motion, while half-naked sirens shoot up through the stage floor and beckon enticingly from an underwater sea of hot, volcanic bubbles. Tannhäuser has arrived at the cave of sin in Venusberg!
Photo: Bettina Stöß
Tannhäuser has left his knightly friends from the Wartburg court in favour of a less orderly life in the thrall of his senses, where he has spent a considerable amount of time enjoying himself in the company of Venus and her friends.
However, life on this medieval Paradise Island proves not to be enough for Tannhäuser, who turns his nose homeward, where he is received with great enthusiasm and celebrated with a solemn song festival, with the wondrous nature of love as its theme.
Photo: Bettina Stöß
But alas. Tannhäuser sings a little too openly about his experiences with the ladies in Mount Venus. His misdemeanours are too much for the audience, and his fellow knights turn against him. Only through the intervention of his childhood sweetheart Elisabeth does he save his life, on condition that he agrees to go on a pilgrimage to the Pope in Rome to seek forgiveness for his sins.
Photo: Bettina Stöß
The Pope rejects him, and Tannhäuser returns home as an outcast until Elisabeth, against all odds, intercedes for him again and sacrifices her life for their love. Liebestod is, as we know, a recurring theme and central focus of several of Wagner’s operas. Or will she survive in this slightly feminist Berlin production?
Photo: Bettina Stöß
Kirsten Harms’ production is distinguished by its exceptionally beautiful, neo-classical execution and a top-class cast of singers, with Camilla Nylund in a well-thought-out, creative move singing both the part of Venus and Elisabeth.
The whore and the Madonna united in one and the same person as a kind of encapsulation of the moral/philosophical threads that run through Wagner’s entire oeuvre.
A revolutionary and idealist torn between two worlds.
Five stars from Got to see this for a satisfying, well-rounded, four-hour Wagner experience (including two intermissions) in a spectacular semi-modernist take with stunning choral pieces and sublime orchestral playing.
BONUS INFO/FUN FACT
Tannhäuser exists in several versions, including the Paris edition, in which Wagner had included a ballet in the first act. A serious attack on the opera was planned by the members of the wealthy, aristocratic and womanising Jockey Club, who had a habit of arriving at the opera just before the ballet in the second act and leaving the house when the ballet was over.
They protested against Wagner’s placement of the ballet in the first act, as it meant that they had to be present from the very beginning of the opera to enjoy the dancers – quite a blow to their plans!
The club members led the protests from the audience with boos, whistles and horns. At the third performance on 24 March 1861, the commotion led to several interruptions lasting up to a quarter of an hour at a time.
After that performance, Wagner took the opera off the bill and gave up hope of establishing himself in Paris, which at that time was the centre of the opera world.
