The Mariinsky Theatre has just presented a new production of the opera Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner. The first performances took place on 17 and 18 June at the Mariinsky II as part of the Stars of the White Nights festival, with Valery Gergiev conducting.

Tannhäuser is the ninth opera in the Mariinsky Theatre's Wagnerian project. Two years ago, in the summer of 2019, its premiere took place at the Concert Hall; now the opera has been staged at the Mariinsky II. And though the production team remains unchanged (stage director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev and designer Pyotr Okunev) the public saw a completely new production – with new sets and costumes and featuring new shades of meaning.

Of the several versions of the score, it is the so-called "Dresden edition" that is performed at the Mariinsky Theatre – this version is named after the city where the opera's world premiere took place. This means that one of Wagner's most impressive works – the overture to Tannhäuser – is performed here in its entirety, and performed by one of the finest Wagnerian orchestras in the world at that.

The protagonist of the opera is the conflict-ridden poet-knight Tannhäuser. The love-and-philosophy triangle he faces features the characters of the pagan goddess Venus and the Christian prophetess Elizabeth. The conflict between the worldly and the heavenly is conveyed in the overture, and it is later developed in the subsequent three acts of the opera. On the one hand we have the triumphant power of choral refrains, and on the other we have tedious and passionate chromatics, conveying sensual attraction. Confronted by the present and the eternal, by sin and virtue, Wagner employs the universal language of myth, and so his plots easily respond to actualisation, to being transformed into the realities of today.

At the Mariinsky Theatre the role of Tannhäuser is performed by Sergei Skorokhodov, Mikhail Vekua and Avgust Amonov. As well as the new stage version, the audience will see the latest endeavours of the opera company's soloists: singing in Tannhäuser for the first time will be Elena Stikhina and Maria Bayankina (Elisabeth), Kirill Zharovin and Roman Burdenko (Wolfram), and Gleb Peryazev (Hermann). Rehearsals featured the same cast as in the previous production. This is published in its entirety on the theatre's website.

"I'm expecting a lot from this production of Tannhäuser," says maestro Valery Gergiev. "We are essentially staging a new production, and this production involves incredibly powerful singers. In so doing, we are expanding and cementing the Mariinsky Theatre's Wagneriana. If you also take into account the fact that soon we want to stage Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg as well, then by late 2021 we will have ten of Richard Wagner's operas in our repertoire."