Wagner: Tannhauser (C Major: 709404) [Blu-ray] [2012]

Before purchasing this blu-ray I checked the production on youtube. My impression was of an extremely dull production superbly sung. I decided to give it a try hoping that in context the production may prove more interesting. It turns out that what you see on youtube is what you get. This staging aggressively reroutes the accepted narrative and as a result the Regie constantly fights the text. It's one thing to update a work and another thing altogether so supplant it with a different theme. Tannhäuser has a religious theme involving temptation, sin and redemption. Even though the boundaries of temptation and sin have changed since Wagner's time, the central theme is still relevant to many people. Most people in the world, including Europeans believe in God or can relate to these themes even if church attendance is declining in some countries. However, it is practically impossible to find Theaterregisseurs who would dare to profess any religious sensitivity; their professional community is not open to that. So we have the characters of this work sing a text that is constantly at odds with the supplanted plot and its incongruent theme and ambiance. For example, when Tannhäuser warns Wolfram grandly at the beginning of his Rome narration "Bleib fern von mir! Die Stätte, wo ich raste, ist verflucht" the text comes across as over the top and out of synch with the context, and this goes on like that for over 3 hours. On top of that I found the production boring. I fell asleep in act I several times. I watched act II several days later, adequately refreshed and managed to stay awake, but I noticed that the big arc of the conflicts falls flat - there is little dramatic tension. When I reached act III I've had enough - I turned the TV off, grabbed the libretto and enjoyed the performance as an audio recording.

The cast is first rate. With Tannhäuser the main concern is if the tenor will even make it to the end in one piece. It's amazing to think that Seiffert has been singing at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin (and elsewhere) since the 80's! He has a gorgeous tone, enviable stamina, open-throated secure delivery, true Wagnerian heft, and a long breath that allows for wonderful legato with clear projection and enunciation and near perfect intonation. He easily towers over the ensembles. This is not just a god-given talent (which it is) - he has the technique to deliver: the voice is well supported, the portrayal commanding, even breathtaking and the passions are aching and sincere. Seiffert's wife, soprano Petra Maria Schnitzer is in the same league, with a powerful, secure, creamy and radiant voice. Beatrice Uria-Monzon's Venus is the sexiest I've heard! Günther Groissböck's Hermann and all the minnesänger are first rate. Liceu principal conductor Sebastian Weigle's reading is dependable and well paced but routine. The chorus were truly involved and worked hard. The sound design of the recording tames the climaxes. Wagner's choral and ensemble climaxes are really loud in Lohengrin, Meistersinger and in this work, a wall of sound. They can be thrilling in the theater but at home their effect depends on your playback setup and the size of the room. I missed the energy of the climaxes but this approach has its pluses. The balance favors the singers and the orchestra is not particularly well recorded (it's a little on the thin side), but this may reflect actual acoustic of the performance as the sets always provide large sound reflecting surfaces and are not open to the back of the stage. The Liceu has a gorgeous lively acoustic but no commercial recording that I know of has ever captured it adequately (souvenirs from the audience have, though...) The lighting in acts I and III is dark, which enhances the soporiphic effect (snooze...)

Tannhauser was premiered in 1845 Dresden State theater,then Wagner fiddled with it until 1861, where the piece was shown in Paris. He changed the first Act,placing the famous Bacchanale in Venusburg,which changed the balance,because he used more advanced music that he had written for Tristan und Isolde completed in 1859.Because the ballet was at the beginning of the opera,the Jockey club who liked to come late to the Paris opera and were infurated because he would not put the ballet in a later act,created a disturbance,which caused the third performance to be taken off.This is the opera we hear these days.The opera is about the artists conflict between sensuality and asceticism,probably Wagners. He once wrote, "I would like to be a saint,but I am too Earthy for that".The alienated artist who yearns for the world of imagination ,yet is fatally attracted to the real world as well. To the end of his life the preoccupation with the music of Tannhauser never left him, as Cosimas dairies prove.

The traditional staging is based upon this,the artifical pleasurable world of Venusburg begins to bore Tannhauser,he longs for his release to the world of pain and freedom.Act 11 He returns to Wartburg where Elizabeth was waiting for him, pure and chaste. There is a song contest and the singers conceive love as as something abstract and and moral,while Tannhauser suggests it is joyous and sensual experience and further describes lust and that all should go to Venusburg to learn about it. All are furious. Tannhauser is expelled and goes to Rome to ask for forgiveness from the Pope.Act 111.Elizabeth is pinning for Tannhauser and dies.Tannhauser returns,the Pope will not forgive him. Venus appears in person then vanishes as Elizabeths name is mentioned. Redeemed at last Tannhauser dies too. Wagner was never a Catholic nor a practicing Christian, in fact he followed the philosophy of Feuerbach,who believed Man has created God in his own image. Then Schopenhauer who was influenced by Plato,Kant and the Upanishads. He was one of the very few Western Philosophers who was influenced by Hindu and Buddhist thought.Thus, Wagner was scornful of critics who insist in reading into his Tannhauser a specifically Christian and impotently pietistic drift.Levine directs the traditional version on DVD at the Met,with Troyanos,Marton, Weikl.

THe stage director Robert Carsen shows Tannhauser and his fellow Minnesangers as painters of today. Elizabeth is his muse,Venus his model,and both could be his lovers. He cannot choose between them. Landgraf Hermann is an international art dealer presenting(as the equivalent of the Act 2 singing competition) an exhibition of new work in his gallery(the Wartburg). Tannhauser's revolutionary new painting is shown to the gallery's audience while he is singing in praise of Venus and erotic love. It causes shock and scandal and leads to his expulsion from the artistic community. In Act 3 Elizabeth while awaiting Tannhausers return from work elsewhere,dresses like Venus and imagines being the artist's model. Eventually Tannhauser paints both Woman. At the final curtain his work is hung alongside the gallery's other established treasures. The hero then, is a painter,struggling to finish a work that upsets and is at first rejected but later finds its place in the world. Carsen downplays the significance of Tannhausers sin in turning from the chaste Elizabeth to the sexy Venus(a pagan gooddess),followed by a journey to Rome.Who would believe that today,unless you are a right wing American Evanglist, men would chose boring Elizabeth instead of Venus. Neither would a Art crowd be turned off by a song about lust.The individuals path to redemption is shown by Carsen as the progress and recognition of new art. Where Wagner asked for Tannhauser to die over Elizabeth,Wolfram is seen to encourage Tannhauser to paint again,both Elizabeth and Venus become his models. The impossible has been achieved, the artist is accepted because the establishment has come around to Tannhauser's new way of thinking and painting.

If in Act 1 you become confused by virtually naked men wearing undies,rolling aound in red paint in front of the naked Venus, dont be. They are creating experimental art.A happening. You can only see Venus from the back,no full frontal view,nor naked men. Sorry folks,thats how it is. Act 2, Elizabeth walks down the aisle and starts singing her aria next to the orchestra and the front row. Then Tannhauser and Wolfram do the same. Tannhauser begins his aria and stands on the stage on the otherside of Elizabeth. When the march begins all the choir walk down the aisle and go onto the stage,at the end photgraphers take pictures of them. This is the admiring guests come to view the new pictures in the Wartburg art gallery.White walls, with shinning black floor. Modern dress. This is bringing the audience into the opera instead of passive observers. Experimental theatre at its best. Will the traditionalists like this version of the opera.No. I can say this because I like both modern and traditional staging.

Sebastian Weigle conducts the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. His tempo's are swift. The textures are light,not heavy. Venus Beatrice Uria-Monzon, is a genuine Mezzo with the chest notes of a Contralto,rare today.Stunning performance.She is Carmen in a bluray performance in this opera house. Wolfram is a high bass Markus Eiche,what a beautiful voice, as is Hermann Gunther Groissbock,a deep bass.Elizabeth, soprano Petra Maria Schnitzer who is married in real life to Tannhauser, Peter Seiffert are good. They were Sieglinde and Siegmmund in the Valencia Ring.For me having been to art school and a practicing artist for a number of years I throughly enjoyed the performance. The updating of a opera that Wagner never finished fiddling with has been required, for it was very dated. A cast and orchestra that does justice to Tannhauser. Well done.Sublime singing.

REGION CODE A. B. C. HD 1080i. Pcm stereo. Dts-HD Ma 5.1. subtitles English etc. Booklet. Recorded April 2008 released 2012.