With this production of Tannhäuser, Robert Carsen has created one of his best stagings: Elegant, well thought out as well as thought-provoking. There is only one problem: This was a co-production between the opera houses of Paris and Barcelona. In Paris, the cast including Nina Stemme and Sophie Koch was superb. In Barcelona, less so. And however illogical and unfortunate, the DVD was filmed in Barcelona.
To Robert Carsen, ths opera evolves around an artists struggle with the
creative process: Tannhäuser
is a painter. We begin in his studio, where he is painting the naked Venus.
Multiple copies of Tannhäuser try and paint Venus as well, but all ends in an
orgy of nakedness. And is this not the problem perhaps? That nakedness, itself,
is not enough to be exciting let alone artistic inspiration? In any case, Tannhäuser completes his painting and in Act
2 finds himself in a modern art gallery. Hermann is the owner. A reception is
about to begin. Unsurprisingly, what we see next is a successive revelation of
paintings (note that we, the audience only see the reverse side, never what is actually on the painting) during the
traditional “Sängerfest”. Shocked by Tannhäusers painting of the naked Venus
(presumably, as we never get to see it), he is expelled from the Gallery. During all this, Carsen makes extensive use of the auditorium as both
gallery guests as Elisabeth and Tannhäuser enter and exit from between the rows
of spectators.
So
far, no real interpretative controversy. However this is to come in the third
Act, which opens with Elisabeth dreaming about Tannhäuser whilst performing
some act of autoeroticism. When the painters/pilgrims return from Rome, their
scaffolds are empty, stripped of their paintings. With the antecedents in mind
it really is not that surprising that when Tannhäuser finally calls out for
Venus, she arrives together with Elisabeth. The two women have merged into one
so to say, representing two different but equally essential aspects of womanhood.
Thus, when Tannhäuser now reveals his painting (after Elisabeth has touched it)a high-class audience it is recognized as a masterpiece and
is assigned a place on the wall in a gallery full of masterpieces – its final
place being on the wall just beneath Botticelli´s Venus from Milo. As the
painting is turned around just before it is revealed the curtain drops.
The
weakness, however, are the singers. In Paris they had Nina Stemme, Sophie Koch
and Eva-Maria Westbroek (in a previous run). Here, Beatrice Uria-Monzon looks
stunning, just as fine as her Act 1 body-double, but vocally she is shaky and
her vibrato is unpleasant.
As
for Peter Seiffert, his acting is not too bad, but vocally he is just not very
pleasant to listen too. His real-life wife Petra-Maria Schnitzer does better,
but there is no bloom in her voice and she is no match for the Paris ladies.
Best are Markus Eiche (a substitute for Bo Skovhus) as Wolfram and Günter
Groissböck as Hermann.
Weigle
is doing fine without being extraordinary, however a Tannhäuser without a real
Tannhäuser is a hard sell. As for alternative versions, the idea of Tannhäuser centered around creative
struggles is also explored in Kasper Holtens staging from Copenhagen, now available on DVD, but
otherwise my recommendation would probably either Alden´s production fromMunich or Lehnhoff´s from Baden-Baden.
Arrival of the guests (Act 2):
The
bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):
Peter
Seiffert: 2-3
Beatrice
Uria-Monzon: 3
Petra-Maria
Schnitzer: 3-4
Günter
Groissböck: 4
Markus
Eiche: 4
Sebastian
Weigle: 4
