Opera
Tannhauser
Wagner's Tannhauser in Baden-Baden
Composer Richard Wagner
Musical director Philippe Jordan
Tannhauser Robert Gambill
Elisabeth Camilla Nylund
Venus Waltraud Meier
Landgraf Stephen Milling
Wolfram von Eschenbach Roman Trekel
Stage director Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Sets Raimund Bauer
Costumes Andrea Schmidt-Futterer
Choir Festspielhaus-Chor Baden-Baden
Orchestra Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Tannhauser is a man in search of the meaning of life, a Faustian character, an Everyman. He looks for meaning in incompatible worlds. In his travels through time and space he always transforms one form of being into the other, a voyage in time that of necessity end sin avoid. Tannhauser always appears at the wrong time and in the wrong place. He is in sarch, wandering around without a home, without solid ground under his feet. He is the prototype of the uncompromising contemporary driven by a longing to die.
Vensuberg, Wartburg and Rome are the three significant places in this opera. Tannhauser moves between those different worlds, turns around in circles and looks for salvation from this unending loop by death. The world appears to him like a continuously turning spiral whether he is in an erotic dream, in the social-political life or in nowhere-land.
In Tannhauser’s view the essence of love is destroyed through the separation of the spiritual and the sensual Eros. Tannhauser’s outburst at the end of the song contest, ‘Move to the Venusberg’ is an unequivocal pleading for an erotic and social freedom which he pays dearly.
If you like this then try these...
Bookmark this page...
* Required fields
Latest comments
chris howard
Fri 17 July 2009, 15:42
have only recently joined sky,
a good thing when giving the synopsis would be to include the dates and times the production was shown or when it is expected to be shown on sky arts
Report this comment
Liz Heywood
Wed 18 November 2009, 12:34
Yes - I absolutely second that comment.
Please ....
Report this comment