Eschewing the sexual discourse that permeates most of the opera’s dramaturgic readings, Kratzer as an alternative channels Wagner’s revolutionary previous by masterfully framing the libretto’s opposing realms as a juxtaposition between the anarchic artwork embodied by Venus’s troupe of libertines and the structured bourgeois formalism codified on the Festspielhaus. Strikingly insightful in its originality and deeply transferring in its dramatic execution, Kratzer’s Tannhäuser has since change into celebrated as Regietheater working at its best, referencing motifs and threading interpretive concepts from Wagner’s life logically and humorously into the rating.
Because the Overture begins, Kratzter and his video artist Manuel Braun challenge a movie onto the stage that soars over majestic vistas of the Wartburg fortress and the luxurious forests of Thuringia. The digital camera then focuses down right into a scrappy hipster camper van populated by a Zerbinetta/Harlekin-like band of colourful bohemians–the ringleader Venus wearing a slinky leotard, Tannhäuser made up as a clown, the charismatic, effervescent drag queen Le Gateau Chocolat, and the diminutive, drum-playing Oskar.
Reasonably than epitomizing the carnal pleasures of the legendary Venusberg, this merry group of anarchists traverses the countryside sowing chaos and propagating their libertine philosophy by way of posters bearing the motto “Frei im Wollen, Frei im Thun, Frei im Geniessen”–lifted from a pamphlet authored by the younger Wagner when he participated within the Dresden Could Rebellion of 1849. Throughout a poignant second within the opening montage, the viewers broke into spontaneous applause when Oskar is briefly depicted elevating a glass to the reminiscence of the late Stephen Gould–one of many aesthetic refreshes that proceed to make this manufacturing so important and fascinating 5 years into its run.
Tragedy strikes when Venus runs over a policeman who catches the group scamming a Burger King for a free meal. Upon this juncture, we expertise the primary of Kratzer’s impressed directorial selections, utilizing the severity of a life misplaced as an alternative of the titular character’s ennui as a logical motivation for his personal jolting again into actuality and his departure from the gang.After leaping out of the Citroën, Tannhäuser encounters a bicycle owner (the shepherd), who guides him again to the Festspielhaus, conceptualized by set designer Rainer Sellmeier as this metanarrative’s proxy for Wartburg.
With vocal rating in tow, Heinrich finds himself amid the Bayreuth viewers making their “pilgrimage” to the Pageant for a efficiency of Tannhäuser–the exact same efficiency the place he’s set to seem! As he reconnects with the Minnesingers, his tense, silent confrontation with Elisabeth–an interventionist transfer that portrays her as an unstable and complicated character–units the stage for the metatheater that Kratzer’s crew conceived for Act II. Though Elisabeth’s depiction diverges from her standard Marian archetype, Kratzer’s determination to evolve the character from this kernel demonstrates yet one more one in every of his idea’s ingenious motivational twists–one which receives a satisfying payoff within the opera’s conclusion.
Nonetheless, Venus and her gang produce other concepts, and pursue Tannhäuser to the Festspielhaus to rescue him. As the primary act closes, we see the troupe parked in entrance of the theater–a segue to an exhilarating free-for-all outside live performance spearheaded by the spellbinding Le Gateau Chocolat. When the curtain falls, the viewers descends the hill to a pond, the place Le Gateau Chocolat and the crew ship an eclectic drag live performance/occasion that includes covers like Ol’ Man River, Wannabe (Spice Ladies), Vogue (Madonna), and a hearty bass rendition of Dich Teure Halle–an indispensable manufacturing aspect that embodies the inventive dichotomies outlined by Kratzer in his dramaturgy.
Act II unfolds as a seamless transition between the realm of movie and the metatheater enacted by the artists onstage. The decrease half of the set conveys a photorealistic recreation of Wartburg’s historic singer’s corridor, whereas the higher half displays video projections of the backstage space and the outside of the Festspielhaus. After Elisabeth and Tannhäuser’s reunification, the video transitions to the Venusberg gang invading the theater (In a humorous nod to Lyniv and Stutzmann’s addition to the roster, Oskar and LGC change the identify of the conductor’s corridor from “Diregenten” to the extra inclusive “Dirigintinnen”!) and unfurling a poster on the facade emblazoned with Wagner’s libertine slogan.
Venus mugs one of many actresses because of seem as a web page and infiltrates the Wartburg set, performing overtly out of step with the ensemble. The competition’s stage motion initially proceeds in conventional vogue however finally descends into chaos when the trio finally joins Tannhäuser in unapologetically flagrant merrymaking after his impassioned problem to Wolfram. It’s upon Elisabeth’s interjection of “Haltet ein!” that Kratzer arrives on the emotional crux of his imaginative and prescient, tying collectively his thoughtfully crafted Personenregie into his delineation of opera’s thematic dualities.
Beneath Kratzer’s path, Elisabeth not represents the idealized virginal saint, however reasonably a tragic, self-destructive, flesh-and-blood human who realizes that she might by no means have Tannhäuser, at the very least not within the actuality of “Wartburg” and its formalistic strictures. Simply because the scintillating attract of Venusberg’s hedonism tempts Tannhäuser again into its fold, so too does it awaken Elisabeth to the belief that she might not belong inside her stifling and moralistic world. Elisabeth’s searing rebuke of Wartburg’s hypocrisy and Tannhäuser’s arrest mark a pivotal turning level for establishing Kratzer’s transferring denouement. Venusberg has remodeled right into a Beckettian wasteland, Le Gateau Chocolat has bought out and advertises luxurious watches, and Oskar is homeless, the only member of the troupe dwelling out his days within the dilapidated hipster bus.
When Elisabeth, in a second of despair, fails to search out Heinrich among the many returning pilgrims, she seduces Wolfram and invitations him for intercourse, however solely when he’s dressed up as Tannhäuser in clown costume–an illusory consummation to ease her in direction of her tragic finish. After they make love behind the van, she lastly takes her personal life. Tannhäuser returns as a raveled vagrant, and in frustration, he tears up his vocal rating and litters the stage with its pages, symbolizing his emancipation from Tannhäuser. When Wolfram reveals Oskar cradling the bloodied corpse of Elisabeth, Tannhäuser involves her facet and the opera arrives on the finale’s staff-sprouting miracle–a closing video montage of Tannhäuser and Elisabeth using the Citroën van into the sundown.
The insights that permeate Kratzer’s imaginative and prescient are actually thought scary in a fashion that transforms perceptions of how each the dramatist and viewers can interact a piece throughout its a number of layers. Whereas there may be a lot to marvel about Kratzer’s intelligent metanarrative reflection of Wagner’s personal struggles with evolving politics and artwork, it’s the emotional depth imparted to the principle characters that finally elevates this Tannhäuser into a rare staging. Though the standard discourse between pure and erotic love is minimized on this manufacturing, Kratzer’s scenario of Tannhäuser and Elisabeth inside his idea’s dualities arguably fleshes them out as extra compelling and tragic beings–each unable to achieve real human love inside the imperfections of Wartburg and Venusberg. And thus, it’s with the emancipation afforded by demise that the characters extricate themselves from both philosophical excessive to have their completely happy ending.
Fortuitously, Kratzer’s glorious manufacturing was supported by a superb group of soloists that embodied the director’s imaginative and prescient with musicality and intelligence. Klaus Florian Vogt, who carried out Act III of the opera in Boston final yr, sings a Tannhäuser of integrity and distinction, managing the excessive mendacity passages that require flexibility with fluency and ease, whereas imparting the ultimate act’s Rome Narrative with chunk and vivid phrase portray. Dramatically, Vogt embodied the character’s three sides with the verbal nuance of a seasoned Wagnerian artist–the libertine clown of the primary act, the assured Minnesinger of Act II, and eventually the world-weary vagrant of Act III. His lover Elisabeth was portrayed by the Norwegian soprano Elisabeth Teige, an ample-voiced singer who can vault into the character’s explosive moments with energy. Whereas Ms. Teige’s richly tinted soprano possesses the required timbral density to fill the Wagnerian traces, the readability of her diction may waver and her flickering instrument at occasions lacked the repose and the gradation of dynamics required to imbue the character’s “Allmächt’ge Jungfrau” with a radiant glow.
Markus Eiche, the veteran Wolfram of this manufacturing, sang his character’s solos nobly and ardently, albeit with a baritone that has brightened since its 2019 premiere. If the standard of his singing doesn’t efface the refulgence of latest nice Wolframs like Peter Mattei and Gerald Finley, Eiche brings forth verbal subtlety, a complexity and a wounded satisfaction in Kratzer’s fascinating learn of the character. Making her Bayreuth debut within the function of Venus, the younger Californian mezzo soprano Irene Roberts revealed a lyric instrument of promise on this repertory, compact on the onset however blossoming right into a extra richly coloured, house-filling mezzo with the opera’s development. Because the ringleader of the band of anarchists, Ms. Roberts lower an athletic and charismatic determine onstage, intense and humorously defiant in her character’s embodiment. Günther Groissböck sounded vocally extra resonant and freer because the Landgraf Hermann, his registers exhibiting better evenness and his jaw acrobatics extra disciplined in comparison with his Marke on this Pageant’s Tristan.
Among the many most important characters, Vogt, Eiche, and Groissböck must be recommended for sculpting Wagner’s traces with impeccable diction. Of their transient components because the Minnesingers, Siyabonga Maqungo floated candy tones as Walther von der Vogeweide, whereas Olarfur Sigurdarson performed a strained and forgettable Biterolf. And whereas this infectious duo solely performed silent components, Le Gateau Chocolat and Manni Laudenbach have persistently been an absolute delight because the manufacturing’s inception, enlivening Krazter’s intelligent mise en scène with their on- and offstage shenanigans. Eberhard Friedrich, the Bayreuth Pageant’s refrain director, drew performances of dramatic conviction and verbal readability from the spectacular refrain assembled for this manufacturing.
Nathalie Stutzmann debuted on the Bayreuth Pageant final yr because the third official conductor for Kratzer’s Tannhäuser. Drawing upon her profession’s early part as a contralto, Ms. Stutzmann led a balanced, singer-friendly account of the rating that may brim with a vibrancy of colours and a kinetic momentum, each qualities of which have been evident within the first and second acts. Surprisingly, her third act got here off a tad stultified, missing within the rhythmic tautness, the by way of line, or the strain required to convey the act’s prevailing desolation. The Rome narration, an intense and uncovered solo requiring exacting musical repartee between the lead tenor and the orchestra, often flagged and encountered syncing points. Total, although, setting the third act apart, Stutzmann led a convincing and theatrical studying that complemented Kratzer’s masterpiece of a manufacturing.
Pictures: Enrico Nawrath and Christian Ocier
