Wagner Tannhäuser Part 1

Wagner Tannhäuser Prom 29, hot on the heels of an excellent  Tannhäuser, at Bayreuth. Bayreuth wins hands down, no contest.

The Prom was OK for what it was and fans of conductor Donald Runnicles will be pleased, but orchestrally, Bayreuth was a revelation. Axel Kober was exceptionally good, and his singers (Torsten Kerl, Camilla Nylund) are top league. Bayreuth is the one to spend time with. I've listened to it 4 times now and still find wonders. I'll write more later. But first, some thoughts on the opera.

Wartburger Schloss is a fortress  See how it stands, dangerously perched over a steep cliff. It's a military base. In the 16th century, Martin Luther hid out here, after defying Church and temporal rulers. It became a symbol of resistance to "foreign" ideas. By setting Tannhäuser in Wartburg, Wagner connects his ideas to the rockface of rebellion. Significantly, Tannhäuser is rejected by the Pope, but he isn't destroyed.

In Tannhäuser the battleground revolves around  singers and singing. Wolfram supports esoteric art, uncontaminated by worldly needs. Hence his affiliation to the Evening Star, pallid and remote. Tannhäuser, however, has tasted lust, decadence and extreme emotions and wants something more. So he's an affront to  courtly Minnesänger values. Yet, compare Tannhäuser to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Walther von Stolzing is an aristocrat, but an outsider, who challenges mindless conservatism. Elisabeth is a kind of female Hans Sachs.
 
Zwietracht und Streit sei abgetan commands Landgrave Hermann, (no more contrariness and strife). Tannhäuser is welcome as long as he conforms. They want him because Elisabeth won't come to their revels otherwise. It's not him they care about really. But he's seen Venusberg, and alternatives to Wartburg the others can't even guess at. So they leap on him, prepared to kill, until Elisabeth intervenes. (The photo is Lauritz Melchior)

Who is Tannhäuser? He's arrogant, crabby and treats his good fortune with contempt. And yet Elisabeth adores him. Wagner treated many others in much the same way. So what's the pilgrimage? The Landgrave exiles Tannhäuser, forcing him to go to Rome to be absolved.  The pilgrimage music is so dominant that it's much more than a plot device, but fundamental to the whole idea of the opera: The pilgrims are a mass movement, old and young, submerging their individuality in heartfelt abasement. Significantly, Tannhäuser isn't one of the crowd. Maybe Elisabeth knows, for she heads off heavenwards. Nicht such ich dich, noch deiner Sippschaft Einen. (I don't want you and your type), he tells Wolfram, whom we in the audience have just heard singing the transcendent Song of the Evening Star. Tannhäuser deliberately rejects rarified, otherworldly sublimation. Old forms are hollow for him now. What he's become is a "modern" man with conflicts and angst.

This is the set Wagner designed for Venusberg. Cliffs of stone outside, corals next, but as the eye penetrates deeper, softness, lushness. With Freudian hindsight one might think of reproductive organs. How that would upset conservative opera audiences!  So much for the idea of being true to a composer's stage directions.  Wagner's description of the scene is chaste but he and everyone else knew what Satyrs and Nymphs get up to. Tannhäuser isn't about the art of theatre so much as about, to put it bluntly, sex, and its creative power.
Tannhäuser knows Venusberg is dangerous but he has to go back.

Listen carefully to Tannhäuser's big aria Inbrust im Herzen which often gets overlooked because we're so stunned by the Abendsterrn. No-one was more penitent than he, says Tannhäuser, because he values Elisabeth's virtues. Therefore, Wie neben mir der schwerstbedrückte Pilger die Strasse wallt', erschien mir allzuleicht:.Tannhäuser debased himself more than the other pilgrims, choosing the most painful route, such was the intensity of his repentance. But the Pope (ie, God's representative) refused him pardon. Shattered, Tannhäuser's going back to Venus. To Wolfram, that's just nuts, he can't  understand at all. Tannhäuser's on an emotional plane which a relatively conventional man, even a poet like Wolfram, cannot begin to comprehend.. As Tannhäuser has been telling the Knights all along, they don't know know what intensity is, since they haven't experienced the extremes of Venusberg.

What they all didn't count on was Elisabeth's own ferocious intensity. She's so extreme that she can force God into action. She is definitely Tannhäuser's soulmate. Wolfram doesn't even come close, and it's a misreading of the opera to assume otherwise. Tannhäuser and Elisabeth are Tristan und Isolde.

From pilgrim procession to funeral procession. The pilgrims bear the Pope's staff, now sprouting fresh new growth. However the Pope's staff may be staged, the concept is crucially important to the meaning of the opera. Arrogant and rebellious to the end, Tannhäuser is saved, not by himself but by Elisabeth and what she believes in. The miracle may seem outrageous, but that's the whole idea.  As the pilgrims would say, Hoch über aller Welt ist Gott, und sein Erbarmen ist kein Spott! (God is greater than anything on earth. Don't make fun of his mercy.)

Who is Elisabeth in Tannhäuser?

Who is Elisabeth in Wagner Tannhäuser? Is she really the Virgin Mary ? The knights at Wartburg revere her but it would be blasphemous to suggest she was their deity, even if she fulfils the role of alter-ego Venus. She doesn't return their awe. When Tannhäuser runs off in a huff, she withdraws from the company. Not for her those pose-y songfests. Like Tannhäuser, she's an individualist, not one of the conforming crowd.

As soon as Tannhäuser returns from Venusberg, Elisabeth knows he's changed, and for the better even though she doesn't know why.  Specifically, she rejects knightly tradition and wants what Tannhäuser's offering, even though he's still in  a dream.

Doch welch ein seltsam neues Leben, rief Euer Lied mir in die Brust! Bald wollt es mich wie Schmerz durchbeben,bald drang's in mich wie jähe Lust;Gefühle, die ich nie empfunden,Verlangen, das ich nie gekannt!

(Emotions, which I have never experienced, needs I never knew). Elisabeth doesn't want to be a Virgin! The photo above might hint that some Elisabeths of the past had an intuitive idea what Elisabeth was going on about (The photo is Irma de Keukelaire in Antwerp, 1943)  I've seen a photo of Emmy Destin dressed up as a nun for the role, complete with massive rosary, but can't find it. A nun in love with a mortal man? However spritual Elisabeth may be she's not quite reached that level of sublimation. 

Wagner is quite clear that  Tannhäuser and Elisabeth have an intense love for each other, way beyond the narrow bounds of convention. When Tannhäuser seeks penitence, he wants to experience pain greater than other pilgrims. Similarly, Elisabeth wants extreme sacrifice. If indeed God were truly merciful, might He not forgive? It's his job, after all. (The Pope in this opera is Reformation caricature). Is Elisabeth then a prototype Isolde, seeking transfiguration through death? Or a Brünnhilde? Either way, Elisabeth is certainly not a passive, wimpy personality. She has the same inner wildness that Tannhäuser has, which is why they are soulmates, who stand out from the crowd.

Wolfram's ideal love is the ultimate in beautiful but he cannot bear the idea of the "pure stream" being sullied by emotional engagement. To paraphrase Tannhäuser, auto-eroticism is sterile. "Du hast die Liebe arg entstellt; wenn du in solchem Schmachten bangest, versiegte wahrlich wohl die Welt!". Real beauty comes from involvement and connection. Venusberg was a bad place but at least people transacted.

However Elisaberth is performed, somwhere along the line the singer and those around her must think about who Elisabeth is and why she responds in such extreme ways to Tannhäuser. Performances can't really be properly assessed out of context. In the Tim Albery production at the Royal Opera House I like Eva-Maria Westbroek's Elisabeth because she was untamed and passionate. Unfortunately the director and designers didn't understand.

Opera - Best of 2010

Lists bother me.  How do you compare a fish to a pinecone? But looking back at 2010 opera is a good exercise because it makes you think "why" things appeal or don't.

At the top, several Royal Opera House productions proving that it's one of the greatest houses of all, however how some enjoy picking nits. Where would we be otherwise? How we've been enriched by Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur! What an experience, visually, musically, intellectually! This was a production where everything pulled together - stars, comprimario, designs, orchestra, conceptual ideas. Brilliant and not just because it looked good. This production had brains behind it (please see several different posts).

Next Niobe, Regina di Tebe. This generated extreme responses, understandably so, as it was baroque, unknown and given completely innovative treatment. Baroque audiences wanted spectacle, excitement, extravagance and wit. That's why Niobe was a hit with specialist European audiences. Too bad if some London audiences didn't get it. Perhaps too many staid Handel performances blunt the appetite. (And Handel can be wild!)  Artistically, this was a daringly brave.choice. Several different posts on Niobe on this blog, please search.

Tannhäuser would be top of my list for sure except for niggling doubts. Audio-only it's mindbendingly beautiful but therein lies the dilemma.  What does the opera really mean? Why are the Wartburgers and even the Pope so paranoid? It's much more than an opera about art, even though the main man's the one with the lute. It's a morality tale with a twist. As Tannhäuser says, the Wartburgers don't know what real emotion is. It follows that, no matter how beautiful art might be, it's superficial without intense, and dangerous emotional engagement. There's plenty on Tannhäuser and on Wagner on this site, so please take the time to read and think about it. Fascinating. I'm growing to love this performance (as heard on broadcast) passionately but still not completely convinced it's been thought through. Not even by Wagner himself, perhaps.But interpretation is important, because it's has a bearing on evaluating performance.

So what is the thread that runs through how and why I respond to things. For me I think it's repertoire first, understanding the work in question, its composer and its meaning.  Even completely new things like George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill which grows in stature the more it's heard.  With vocal music, there almost inevitably has to be meaning of some kind of other, conscious or otherwise. Indeed, the greater the work, there more complex the interpretation. Usually, though not inevitably.

That's why I enjoyed the Glyndebourne Don Giovanni better than the Glyndebourne Billy Budd.  That Billy Budd managed to avoid morality altogether and present the opera as a sailor love triangle. If it hadn't been for Jacques Imbrailo's outstanding performance,  the production would have been ideas-free altogether. In this opera, Britten comes close to revealing his inner conflicts. But perhaps audiences want comfort zone affirmation, not ideas. Anyway, I'll be writing more later about the filmed version of Don Giovanni that's still available on BBCTV2 on demand.  The film is so different from the actual live experience it needs a special post.

ENO's Makropulos Case would have been top of my list too if it had been in Czech.  No way will the best European singers relearn their parts in a language foreign to them and to the music. Of course the ENO helped put Janáček on the anglophone map but it's still a compromise.  ENO's Bizet Pearl Fishers would have been a greater success if all the singers had been on the level of those in the ROH concert Les Pêcheurs de Perles. Some languages translate better. Oddly enough, the more I think about ENO's Idomeneo, the more it makes sense to me. Revivable, with adjustments.

Two Rossini Armidas and one Handel Alcina this year (same theme, different angle). I walked out of the Met Armida in disgust. Massive budget, but so self-congratulatory (I could use another word) that  it was artistic constipation. In complete contrast Garsington Opera's Armida was utterly brilliant.  Garsington makes a speciality of obscure Rossini operas, so the production came from a genuine understanding of the music and meaning. The Met has money, but Garsington has taste.

Normally I don't like celebrity chasing because it's not good for art or for the kind of performers who take it too seriously. But some singers rise way above that level and have integrity. That's why I shall never forget Plácido Domingo's Simon Boccanegra.  Such artistry, such committment, such engagement. Who cares if the fit's not perfect? There are things in art that transcend all pettiness.

What's up in Venusberg? Melchior naked Tannhäuser

What's really going on in Venusberg? Why are the good folks of Wartburg so afraid ? Much praise for the ballet in the Royal Opera House production of Wagner Tannhäuser because it is beautiful - maidens in white slips waving and bending. As ballet, it's wonderful. But is it Venusberg? Of course sinister things don't "need" to be depicted. Most of us are used to polite images of Venusberg with naked women looking charming, but in the 19th century just showing a nude was titilliating, especially if you were sitting next to a buttoned up High Victorian matron.

What did Wagner think? Anyone who insists on following stage directions to the letter is in for a serious shock! Wagner wanted depravity. Bacchantes, satyrs and fauns: all famous for debauchery. Wagner explicitly depicts ein Nebelbild zeigt die Entführung der Europa, a picture in the clouds of the Rape of Europa, a nymph who's carried off by an oversexed bull. If that's not enough, Wagner later mentions Leda, who caresses a swan on her lap. What Wagner's audiences knew was that the swan then rapes the girl.  Bestiality, drunkeness, violence and disorderly abandon. Read Wagner's exact words (and translation) HERE. So those who piously talk platitudes about "modern" values in stagecraft should go back to source and be grateful that Jasmin Vardiman's ballet cleans things up.

Listening to the broadcast on BBC Radio 3 was wonderful. It's available online internationally for 7 days. Because its repeated, no need to cram everything into one listening.

This time really concentrate on the singing, which is magnificent. Gerhaher is beautiful, but Westbroek and Johan Botha are able to develop the complexity that makes the roles so fascinating. As Tannhäuser tells Wolfram, "You lot don't even begin to understand." Botha knows what motivates Tannhäuser and why. And if you REALLY want a shock, search for the Life magazine spread on Lauritz Melchior at the Met in 1943. See Melchior naked! He's completely unconcerned about being seen in his girdle and love handles. This pic is not part of it as far as I can track, and it's pretty tame. By reputation, Melchior was probably the greatest Tannhäuser there ever was. "It's the singing, stupid" he might say.PLENTY MORE ON THIS SITE about Wagner and specifically the Royal Opera House Tannhäuser

Xmas broadcasts - Glyndebourne Don G, ROH Tannhauser

If the Pope's Thought for the Day isn't enough and the Queen isn't likely to say what she thinks, there's still plenty to listen to to enjoy. One of the best Xmas presents I ever had was childcare the year two complete Ring cycles were broadcast back to back. That was in the days before video, far less DVD, so missing  them would have been heartbreaking  We take for granted how much easier things are these days. Now we can record privately what we can't hear live.

Naturally plenty of hymns and church services because that's what the holiday is ABOUT, never forget. But Xmas Eve, the big treat on BBC TV2 at 1445 will be Glyndebourne's Don Giovanni from summer 2010. I much preferred this to the Glyndebourne Billy Budd because it showed some understanding of Mozart's sharp wit and pace. Billy Budd looked nice, but it's not a love triangle. Wonderful performances but no concept of the inner moral dilemmas. Please read about Glyndebourne's Don Giovanni and Billy Budd by clicking on the links.

Then at 1800 on Christmas Day there'll be a broadcast of the current Royal Opera House Wagner Tannhäuser. This should be international online, too, but I'm not sure it repeats. Listen, whether you've already been or are planning to go. Tannhäuser  isn't the easiest of operas to understand, perhaps because Wagner himself was more conflicted about it than might seem at first. That's all the more reason to do homework and think carefully about what the opera means. It's certainly not a love triangle either.  Tannhäuser is torn between easy self indulgence and spartan conformity, yet even these two poles aren't the whole story. His dilemma is that he's tasted emotions so intense that they wreck him for normal life. None of the Wartburgrers can understand - except the holy Elisabeth. A lot of disinformation has been written about this production, so listen carefully and read the libretto and background.  Without the visuals it might be easier to appreciate what a difficult part this is to sing as well as to interpret. I've done an analysis of its meaning and images, and there's a review HERE.
 
The picture above is Paul Cézanne, Young Girl playing the Tannhäuser Overture. It's a great illustration. Compare the hardworking older woman who seems to be listening to what the young woman's playing. But is she? The older woman sits on a red chair but it's hard and severe. The young woman looks demure and repressed, but she feels the music only too well. All around her the wallpaper patterns swirl and fabrics clash. This girl perhaps knows what Tannhäuser is really about. Perhaps she'd like to escape the confines of that stuffy parlour.

Interpreting Images - Wagner Tannhäuser analysis

Tim Albery's Wagner Tannhäuser at the Royal Opera House shows how visual images can be interpreted in different ways. It's a cop-out to suggest that a picture is worth a thousand words. Everyone looks at the same image but sees different things. The real challenge is putting the images together as clues, and from there figuring out what they mean.

Our image of the medieval world is based on those few artefacts that have survived, ie castles, churches, illuminated manuscripts. Facts are that life then was brutish, grim and short, even for knights. Wartburg is a fortress built for warfare. See how it stands, dangerously perched over a steep cliff. It's a military base. In the 16th century, Martin Luther hid out here, after defying Church and temporal rulers. By Wagner's time, Wartburg was a symbol of resistance to "foreign" ideas. Since Wagner wanted to set up a new kind of opera, the implication is clear. "No Meyerbeer here". After a few days, Albery's soviet grunge chic clicked. He's using the metaphor of the Cold War as metaphor, two sides paranoid about each other. How fast we forget such things in the New Europe.

Years ago Jon Vickers pulled out of Tannhäuser because he said it was blasphemous. Compared wth Parsifal and Lohengrin, Tannhäuser's almost factual, so Vickers's reasoning should be taken with a pinch of seasoning. In many ways, Tannhäuser is an update of a medieval morality tale, good and bad pitted against each other in simple contrast. Yet listen closely at the explicitly non-religious undertones.

Zwietracht und Streit sei abgetan commands Landgrave Hermann, (no more contrariness and strife). Tannhäuser is welcome as long as he conforms. They want him because Elisabeth won't come to their revels otherwise. It's not him they care about really. But he's seen Venusberg, and alternatives to Wartburg the others can't even guess at. So they leap on him, prepared to kill, until Elisabeth intervenes. (The photo is Lauritz Melchior)

Who is Tannhäuser? He's arrogant, crabby and treats his good fortune with contempt. And yet Elisabeth adores him. Wagner treated many others in much the same way. So what's the pilgrimage? The Landgrave exiles Tannhäuser, forcing him to go to Rome to be absolved.  The pilgrimage music is so dominant that it's much more than a plot device, but fundamental to the whole idea of the opera: The pilgrims are a mass movement, old and young, submerging their individuality in heartfelt abasement. Significantly, Tannhäuser isn't one of the crowd. Maybe Elisabeth knows, for she heads off heavenwards. Nicht such ich dich, noch deiner Sippschaft Einen. (I don't want you and your type), he tells Wolfram, whom we in the audience have just heard singing the transcendent Song of the Evening Star. Tannhäuser deliberately rejects rarified, otherworldly sublimation. Old forms are hollow for him now. What he's become is a "modern" man with conflicts and angst.

This is the set Wagner designed for Venusberg. Cliffs of stone outside, corals next, but as the eye penetrates deeper, softness, lushness. With Freudian hindsight one might think of reproductive organs. Now that would upset conservative opera audiences!  In comparison, Albery's ROH proscenium is coy, diverting away from the savage soul of the opera. The arch is great visual theatre, but it doesn't connect to anything deep in the opera. Wagner's description of the scene is chaste but he and everyone else knew what Satyrs and Nymphs get up to. Tannhäuser isn't about the art of theatre so much as about, to put it bluntly, sex, and its creative power. Tannhäuser knows Venusberg is dangerous but he has to go back.

Listen carefully to Tannhäuser's big aria Inbrust im Herzen which often gets overlooked because we're so stunned by the Abendsterrn. No-one was more penitent than he, says Tannhäuser, because he values Elisabeth's virtues. Therefore, Wie neben mir der schwerstbedrückte Pilger die Strasse wallt', erschien mir allzuleicht:.Tannhäuser debased himself more than the other pilgrims, choosing the most painful route, such was the intensity of his repentance. But the Pope (ie, God's representative) refused him pardon. Shattered, Tannhäuser's going back to Venus. To Wolfram, that's just nuts, he can't  understand at all. Tannhäuser's on an emotional plane which a relatively conventional man, even a poet like Wolfram, cannot begin to comprehend.. As Tannhäuser has been telling the Knights all along, they don't know know what intensity is, since they haven't experienced the extremes of Venusberg.

What they all didn't count on was Elisabeth's own ferocious intensity. She's so extreme that she can force God into action. She is definitely Tannhäuser's soulmate. Wolfram doesn't even come close, and it's a misreading of the opera to assume otherwise. Tannhäuser and Elisabeth are Tristan und Isolde.

From pilgrim procession to funeral procession. The pilgrims bear the Pope's staff, now sprouting fresh new growth. However the Pope's staff may be staged, the concept is crucially important to the meaning of the opera. Arrogant and rebellious to the end, Tannhäuser, is saved, not by himself but by Elisabeth and what she believes in..The miracle may seem outrageous, but that's the whole idea. Toy tree? As the pilgrims would say, Hoch über aller Welt ist Gott, und sein Erbarmen ist kein Spott! (God is greater than anything on earth. Don't make fun of his mercy.)

Like my friend Mark Berry, I much preferred Albery's Tannhäuser to his Der fliegende Holländer. Similar turgid non-movement but much more awareness of deeper levels of meaning.  Despite its flaws Albery's Tannhäuser has a great deal more to offer than seems at first. There have been many Wagner productions with nil ideas or movement. Imagine, singers trapped in Dalek costumes. Then, most people admired non-movement and non-involvement. Please see my review here.

Wagner Tannhäuser Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House itself is the star of this new production of Richard Wagner Tannhäuser. An intriguing twist on an opera that pits orgiastic excess against purity, pleasure against morality. Perhaps Tim Albery's inspiration came from the prize-singing contest. Dominating the stage in the First Act is a fake Royal Opera House proscenium, complete with fake velvet curtains and gold trimmings. It's absolutely stunning. But beware! The fact remains, Tannhäuser is not Adriana Lecouvreur.

For Wagner, Tannhäuser is torn between extremes. Venusberg represents orgiastic excess and abandonment, Wartburg ascetic self denial. Wartburg wins. Venusberg doesn't. If Albery thinks Tannhäuser is a metaphor for opera and for the Royal Opera House in particular, maybe he should get out more and see the real world. Prize song contests aren't just about "singing", as we know from Die Meistersinger. Moreover,  Tannhäuser is even closer to medieval morality tale, though the theology is skewed.

For Wagner (who personally liked velvet and excess)  what is at issue is a new sensibility built on rigorous concepts. Wagner's deliberately distancing himself from Meyerbeer and what he thought of as feelgood, but brainless, glitz. Hence the ballet that portrays Venusberg. It's a pointed dig against the kind of entertainment Wagner rejected, and at the kind of audiences who used to flock to see ballerinas' legs, ignoring the music and drama.  Here it's presented completely devoid of irony. Once I saw a production where the ballet was a bondage orgy, the dancers inhuman beasts. Horrifying yet hypnotic, which is why our hero Tannhäuser was enslaved. If Venusberg was as safe and wholesome as this ballet, he would have long since died of boredom.

Albery's Wartburg is a post-apocalyptic greyness. The Royal Opera House arch lies broken, twisted like rubble in the background.  Visually, though this adds a vertical element to the horizontal flatness. The barrenness is valid, since Wartburg's in a crisis situation. If Venusberg's no fun, Wartburg should be even less so. Physical movement in the First Act is slow to the point of being comatose. At first I thought this was to allow for Johann Botha's disability, which would be laudable, but then remembered that excessively slow movement is a Tim Albery trademark. In Albery's  Der fliegende Holländer (ROH, 2009) , Bryn Terfel spent much of the time appearing to pull a long rope suspended diagonally across the stage. (An echo of this rope appears in this Tannhäuser too.)  Grimness is an Albery thing, whatever the opera or the singer, and often it works. Obviously directors have an individual language, as all artists do, but grim for its own sake can become tedious if it holds up dramatic flow.

Tannhäuser is not a romantic hero. He left Wartburg in a pique and gave in whole-heartedly to Venusberg's excesses. Thus Johann Botha's portrayal is psychologically accurate. Wagner's whole point is that the character is sated, almost destroyed by what he's experienced yet still has a spark of goodness that makes him worth saving. That's why Elisabeth loves him. Why redeem someone who doesn't need the help? Botha's characterization  was much more subtle and true to the role and to the opera than might meet the eye. On the ear, too, he was very good, totally justifying the casting, even if his voice flagged in the final Act. Much better that Botha sings Tannhäuser with a sense of his inner complexes. This is central to the role, and to the dilemmas that face the character. It's a difficult role, and less gratifying because the big showpiece song isn't his, but Botha shows that he's a hero in his own way. Perhaps Wagner knew that the Meyerbeer crowd would never understand.

Tannhäuser might see Elisabeth as the Virgin Mary, but Elisabeth is also a woman with intense passions. Eva-Maria Westbroek's singing brings out the sexuality in the role. Westbroek's forte is bringing personality to the parts she sings, and here she turns an almost stereotype into a fully-formed human being,. A lesser singer would be trapped by the restrictions created by this costume and direction. Westbroek overcomes these obstacles by her innate artistry. Since she can transform dross to gold, her Anna Nicole might make the new show a hit.

Three different people in the audience mentioned that Christian Gerhaher sings like a Lieder singer. This has become such a cliché that maybe it's time to think what that actually means. Gerhaher got mauled by Fischer-Dieskau fans many years ago, so conversely I've listened to him with much greater sympathy than otherwise. I've got most of his records and been to most of his UK concerts. He's an excellent singer, but the smoothness of his line is best suited to roles which reach beyond the fundamental grittiness of Lieder. He's a perfect Wolfram von Eschinbach.  Here his clean timbre creates Wolfram as an idealized symbolic figurehead, not quite of this world even though he was a historical figure.  That, for me, is why Gerhaher's Wolfram was sublime. The character is less important than what it represents. There's no room for Hans Sachs in Der fliegende Holländer, but Wolfram is the embodiment of die heilige deutsche Kunst. something greater than mere mortals.

Semyon Bychkov conducted the Royal Opera House orchestra. Very beautiful, emphasizing the lyricism in the score. The interludes uninterrupted by staging were excellent. Given Albery's valid view that Tannhäuser operates at a critical post trauma turning point, one might have hoped that Bychkov might have injected some crackling tension into the music. It's not a comfortable opera. Wagner declares against Venus, after all.

At the end, another typical Albery touch.  In his Der fliegende Holländer, the Dutchman's haunting portrait was replaced by a toy boat. That's acceptable, as an indication of Senta's fantasist immaturity. In this production there's no papal staff to burst into leaf. Instead a small boy, seated on the same chair Tannhäuser sat in, playing with what looks like a toy Xmas tree. Even if it's supposed to be symbolic, it's absurd. Reductionism can work extremely well in opera, but badly done it turns to trivia.

HERE is the review in Opera Today, with more photos. Please also see my new piece on the interpretation of  Tannhäuser, its meaning and images.  I've since added several more posts on this opera and its characters. Please explore - understanding the opera helps assessing the performance.  It's an opera that's easily misunderstood.  All photos are copyright Clive Barda 2010,  details embedded. Please also see my review of the Wagner Rienzi DVD