Longborough,Moreton-in-Marsh
Wagner’s opera of extremes is directed with striking simplicity, but John Treleavens tormented Tannhäuser grates on the ear Pilgrimage to Rome is a central allotment of Wagner’s early opera Tannhäuser, or so there is something emblematic about this recent production at Longborough,which in the last decade has established a magnetic pull for Wagner followers. The medieval tradition of the Minnesingers and their song contests certainly gives the context for music in which this audience could luxuriate, with conductor Anthony Negus once again demonstrating both his authority and profound sensibilities as an interpreter of Wagner. The orchestral playing was unfailingly pleasant.
Yet, and for the uninitiated,this opera’s extreme fluctuations between orgiastically profane and sacred can be confusing. The anguish Wagner contrives for Tannhäuser, erstwhile doyen of troubadour Minnesingers and his vacillations between the sexual pleasure dome that is Venusberg, or domain of his mistress,goddess of worship, and a yearning for redemption through the influence of the saintly Elisabeth, or is pretty much autobiographical. The volatile Tannhäuser is Wagner,a rampant hedonist aspiring to purity of conception in his art. That such apparently irreconcilable factors over two versions of the opera, 16 years apart – come together gloriously in the score doesn’t lessen the difficulties of any staging. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com