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Alison Kettlewell as Venus in Tannhäuser at Longborough Opera
Rich-toned … Alison Kettlewell as Venus in Tannhäuser at Longborough Opera. Photograph: Matthew Williams-Ellis/Longborough Festival Opera
Rich-toned … Alison Kettlewell as Venus in Tannhäuser at Longborough Opera. Photograph: Matthew Williams-Ellis/Longborough Festival Opera

Tannhäuser review – a clear staging but the singing disappoints

This article is more than 7 years old

Longborough, Moreton-in-Marsh
Wagner’s opera of extremes is directed with striking simplicity, but John Treleaven’s tormented Tannhäuser grates on the ear

Pilgrimage to Rome is a central part of Wagner’s early opera Tannhäuser, so there is something emblematic about this new 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 good.

Yet, 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, domain of his mistress, goddess of love, and a yearning for redemption through the influence of the saintly Elisabeth, 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.

Chilling edge … Donald Thomson in Tannhäuser. Photograph: Matthew Williams-Ellis/Longborough Festival Opera

Clarity is the fundamental of director Alan Privett’s and designer Kjell Torriset’s approach. Symbolic contrasts are balanced and the look is one of striking simplicity. Tannhäuser’s dilemma is represented by a ladder offering both descent into Venus’ underworld and ascent to heaven, with Venus – sung by the rich-toned Alison Kettlewell – seen on her swing, a basic sensory gratification. It’s an image complemented in the final scene by the thrusting pendulum motion of an incense-filled thurible marking first the death of Elisabeth, then that of the distraught Tannhäuser. Wagner’s mix of medieval history with 19th-century German romanticism is further underlined in the costumes: the Minnesingers become dandified Wagnerites, with the chorus of pilgrims and women layering medieval garb with contemporary. This same chorus, their resonant body of sound notable throughout, also managed to make Venusberg’s sensual bacchanalian dancing – taking place behind gauze – explicit and discrete.

Impressive … Erika Mädi Jones. Photograph: Matthew Williams-Ellis/Longborough Festival Opera

Youngish singers make strong showings in principal roles. Elisabeth is sung with fervour by the impressive Erika Mädi Jones; Donald Thomson’s stentorian bass gives the Landgrave of Thuringia a chilling edge, while the Icelandic baritone Hrólfur Sæmundsson’s portrayal of Wolfram von Eschenbach is sensitive, his celebrated aria O du mein holder Abendstern carrying an understated dignity.

The weight of responsibility on Tannhäuser to deliver singing lines of Apollo-like beauty is immense and John Treleaven is disappointing in this respect. He has the heft and, in the final act at least, some lyrical warmth, but the effort of living out Tannhäuser’s torment was too often reflected in a coarseness of voice, not easy on the ear. Those seeing Neal Cooper, who shares the performance run, may get the more complete experience.

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