Wagner: Tannhauser

A Thoroughly Regie Tannhauser
This most current entry into the Tannhauser DVD stakes will likely strike most listeners/viewers as bordering on the perverse. Seemingly it purports to discuss the position of the artist in society much as Lenhoff did in his production of Lohengrin from Baden Baden. Although vocally this production has much to recommend it I felt that Lenhoff's central thesis was grafted on in a very artificial manner and in truth really had nothing to do the Wagner's Lohengrin. In much the same manner Kasper Holten has attempted to make Tannhauser a statement of the artist in society. This would come as an enormous surprise to the audience who made the opera very popular, i.e., the late Victorians and Edwardians who found the duality of human nature appealing, and the same thesis can be found in the literary works of the period. I have no objection to turning a work of art on its head, so to speak, but in so doing the whole thing has to make sense ultimately to justify going against the grain as it...

Disappointing
Oh dear. Where should I start? I greatly admired Holten's "Copenhagen" Ring and had high expectations of this Tannhauser. Alas, it did not live up to my expectations.

Possibly some of this might be due to the fact that before watching it, I had another look at the traditional production from Beyreuth 1978 wonderfully directed by Gotz Friedrich with Gwyneth Jones, Spas Wenkoff, Hans Sotin and Bernd Weikl -- all at the height of their powers. But I doubt it, although with the exception of Susanne Resmark and Stig Anderssen in this production, the singing/acting was on a considerably higher level in the Bayreuth one -- and that might have left a mark.

No. The trouble is that the concept does not fit the libretto; and often feels shoehorned in, leaving not only some confusion, but also emotional distancing.

The idea that Tannhauser is a person caught between two poles is not a new one, and in fact is almost inescapable. The libretto and the music...



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