United Kingdom Wagner, Tannhäuser (1875 model): Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Sebastian Weigle (conductor). Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1.2.2023. (CC)
Production:
Director – Tim Albery
Choreographer (Venusberg bacchanale) – Jasmin Vardimon
Set design – Michael Levine
Costume designer – Jon Morrell
Lighting designer – David Finn
Movement director – Maxine Braham
Cast:
Venus – Ekaterina Gubanova
Tannhäuser – Stefan Vinke
Elisabeth – Lise Davidsen
Hermann – Mika Kares
Wolfram von Eschenbach – Gerald Finley
Shepherd Boy – Sarah Dufresne
Walther von der Vogelweide – Egor Zhuravskii
Heinrich der Schreiber – Michael Gibson
Biterolf – Michael Kraus
This is now the second revival of Tim Albery’s 2010 manufacturing of Tannhäuser; it was beforehand revived in 2016. Only one singer is shared between that solid and the current one: the Biterolf of Michael Kraus. The manufacturing is considerably controversial, with a second proscenium behind the acquainted, ‘real’ one – the curtains act as an entrance to Venusberg, scene of Tannhäuser’s close to damnation.
The rating used is broadly the 1845 one, except the restoration of Walther von der Vogelweide’s music within the second act contest (from the Dresden rating) and an possibility that enables Tannhäuser to sing with out refrain after Elisabeth’s intervention, that’s what was heard on this event,
Sebastian Weigle has carried out sterling work at Frankfurt Opera, and his Wagner performances, issued on the Oehms Classics label, are all of a excessive degree. His DVD /Blu-ray of Tannhäuser from Barcelona’s Liceu is spectacular, and his conducting on this event was no much less so, and proper from the beginning: how typically are we conscious of the horn/bassoon stability within the chords of the Overture, and the way it can color the sound so successfully? The Overture was a masterpiece of a efficiency – the orchestra clearly like Weigle. The orgiastic ballet was phenomenally carried out by the ballet dancers on a technical degree and zoomed in on the concept of temptation and being led (hardly unwillingly) via the second set of curtains to the sensual Venusberg. This was a bacchanale that left one in little question of what goes on, and all of the extra uncooked and efficient for it, powered by a Covent Garden orchestra completely on hearth. Weigle’s tempi all through the night appeared nearly excellent, with hardly a drop of pressure from the 6pm begin to the ten.25pm end.
As the opera progresses, in Michael Levine’s designs that second proscenium steadily disintegrates, giving us boulders and dereliction for the second act, and barely recognisable in Act III; shades of Nicholas Lehnhoff’s Parsifal, maybe? David Finn’s lighting is totally distinctive all through, at one level giving us a blanched, nearly impassive (definitely emotionally distanced) really feel; shadows ‘speak’ volumes on an emotional degree, too.
Musically, the night was carried by three singers: Lise Davidsen’s Venus, Gerald Finley’s magnificent Wolfram and Ekaterina Gubanova’s Venus. Davidsen’s voice seems to be at peak kind, and he or she is a very nice Elisabeth, her ‘Dich, teure Halle’ resplendent, with a voice like a knife (delivering a very superior, within the correct which means of the phrase, at ‘Sei mir gegrusst’) and in her last act Prayer. Mezzo Ekaterina Gubanova, a Royal Opera Young Artist 2002-4, was a robust Venus – one may see how Tannhäuser may have been so tempted. She sang Venus at Bayreuth in 2021 and 2022 (beneath Axel Kober) and owns the function: a very commanding efficiency, her voice highly effective, her pressure of character even better.
As Wolfram, Gerald Finley commanded the stage as a lot along with his presence as along with his voice. His tone was ravishing, significantly in a robust and significantly stunning high register. His ‘O du, mein holder Abendstern’ was supremely delicate; his interplay with Elisabeth in Act III Scene 1 showcased two opera singers on the high of their sport. With Mika Kares as a advantageous Hermann (Landgrave of Thuringia), Michael Gibson as a robust Heinrich der Schreiber Sarah Dufresne as a merely very good Young Shepherd, and Jeremy White as a superb Reinmar, we diminuendo out of positives.
The Song Contest of the second act actually invitations us to enter into the spirit of analyzing the competitors, too. The twin issues right here have been the appearing of Egor Zhuravskii, as hammy as they arrive as Walther von der Vogelweide, and Michael White’s weak-voiced Biterolf.
You might need observed that I’ve not talked about the principle man but, one Tannhäuser, right here Stefan Vinke. Vinke had walked the earlier efficiency via sickness. No announcement was made previous to Act I, but it surely was clear one thing was badly amiss. Air across the voice, pitch issues, the continuous risk of a word breaking, squeaking, or not sounding in any respect and a way of musical disengagement. It was originally of Act II that we had the dreaded announcement – he was nonetheless affected by what had ailed him (maybe they might not this time safe a substitute – Heldentenors are skinny on the bottom, in spite of everything). There have been moments we heard what he can do – after an extended relaxation in Venusberg when Venus takes over, Vinke started once more seemingly refreshed, one thing close to a Heldentenorisch power current, fleetingly, just for it to falter once more. A disgrace, as engagement by no means actually slotted in on this night. I actually hope to listen to Vinke in rampant well being on this, or one other, Wagner function quickly, because the glimpses we acquired of his expertise certainly promise a lot.
A blended night, for positive – however Sebastian Weigle, who made his ROH debut as just lately because the 2018/19 season with Hänsel und Gretel, will certainly be very, very welcome again. He is because of conduct Richard Strauss’s Elektra in Frankfurt March-May this yr, one thing that ought to be properly value catching.
Colin Clarke