Berlin, Staatsoper im Schillertheater, season 2013/2014
“TANNHÄUSER”
Opera in three acts, libretto and music by Richard Wagner
Hermann, landgrave of Thuringia RENÉ PAPE
Tannhäuser PETER SEIFFERT
Wolfram von Eschenbach PETER MATTEI
Walther von der Vogelweide PETER SONN
Biterolf TOBIAS SCHABEL
Heinrich der Schreiber JÜRGEN SACHER
Reinmar von Zweter JAN MARTINIK
Elisabeth, the landgrave’s niece ANN PETERSEN
Venus MARINA PRUDENSKAYA
Young shepherd SÓNIA GRANÉ
Four noble boys JULIA MENCKE, KONSTANZE LÖWE, HANNAH WIGHARDT, ANNA CHARIM
Dancers LIZA ALPÍZAR AGUILAR, PEGGY GRELAT-DUPONT, HWANHEE HWANG, MAUREEN LOPEZ LEMBO, MARGAUX MARIELLE-TRÉHOUART, JUDITH SÁNCHEZ RUÍZ, MATA SAKKA, CLAUDIA DE SERPA SOARES, DAVIDE CAMPLANI, GABRIEL GALINDEZ CRUZ, JOEL SUÁREZ GÓMEZ, STEPHAN LAKS, NICOLA MASCIA, ELIK NIV,VIRGIS PUODZIUNAS, KEVIN QUINAOU, ORLANDO RODRIGUEZ, ANTONIOS VAIS, Staatsopernchor, Staatskapelle Berlin
Conductor Daniel Barenboim
Chorus Martin Wright
Production & Sasha Waltz
Stage Pia Maier-Schriever, Sasha Waltz
Costumes Bernd Skodzig
Light David Finn
Berlin, 12th April 2014
According to his own words, Richard Wagner still owes the world the Tannhäuser. In the same way, the renowned choreographer Sasha Waltz still owes the Berlin audience her idea of or approach to Tannhäuser when tackling the production of this great Wagner opera. To make it clear right from the beginning, Sasha Waltz is undoubtedly one of the greatest personalities of the present ballet scene, especially when it comes to modern dance. She may be considered the legitimate successor of Pina Bausch who she has the idea in common with to combine different forms of art. Consequently she excelled in choreographed operas such as Dido and Aenas by Henry Purcell. But staging an opera by Richard Wagner is something else. The character of Tannhäuser may be closest to the composer’s: the musician who is torn between art and love looking for freedom but failing of the conventions of the society around him. Like Tannhäuser, Wagner was an outcast who in his search for artistic freedom did not feel himself understood by his contemporaries. After decades of Musiktheater the audience expect an opera producer to re-tell the plot with his or her own approach and concept. It is not enough to arrange scene after scene according to the score and add some ballet scenes aimed to underline the action. Instead they turn into a kind of parallel story, which makes themsuperfluous. As to Tannhäuser and the more so as Waltz chose the Paris version of the 1st act for the Bacchanale, the ballet is vital and deserves an elaborate and excellent choreography like hers. The Venusberg scene is the highlight of the production from the ballet point of view but for the opera it is just the introduction. It is set in a kind of big tube that looks like the interior of an eye. The highly esthetical movements of the eighteen semi-nude dancers give an idea why Tannhäuser once left the landgrave’s court and the circle of minnesingers for the erotic adventures in Venus’s realm.
Marina Prudenskaya appears like a Greek goddess and her tall and attractive figure fits into the scenery perfectly well. Vocally she is absolutely convincing, her voluptuous mezzo-soprano has all notes for the demanding part up to the end of the opera. In this case one regrets that the role of Venus is relatively short. Peter Seiffert is probably the best Tannhäuser of our time. Physically he is the typical Wagner hero. Vocally he starts off carefully to gain full power for Allmächtiger in the 1st act and Erbarm dich mein in the 2ndfinale. He has enough stamina for the Romerzählung at the end and as a result of his former lyrical repertoire he is able to really interpret the role with all its subtleties. It is a pity that the director’s missing concept does not leave any space for Tannhäuser’s final redemption. He dies as an old man at Elisabeth’s corpse which is covered by twigs of green leaves brought by the pilgrims. Ann Peterson’s soprano sounded little charming in the Hallenarie which she started off nervously and with too much power. Later she had a few touching moments in the finale of the 2nd act and was at her best in the prayer of the 3rd act. Peter Mattei sings Wolfram von Eschenbach with his plush and powerful baritone. No wonder that his Song to the evening star is the highlight of the 3rd act. Like Peter Seiffert he was frenetically acclaimed by the audience during the curtain calls at the end. As a character Wolfram remains passive as the quiet admirer of Elisabeth and like the other minnesingers and landgrave Heinrich, he is presented as a petit bourgeois. That impression is even underlined by the male dancers in the second part of the 1st act whose movements resemble paintings by Spitzweg and the costumes by Bernd Skodzig that transform the action to Wagner’s days apart from Elizabeth’s ball gown making her look like Grace Kelly in a film of the 1950s. Basically the scenery is reduced to a minimum. The stage by Pia Maier-Schriever and Sasha Waltz is simply left empty for the second scene of the 1st act. A lot of fog is used to make the same autumn-like for the last act. For the hall at the Wartburg of the 2nd act the stage reflects the interior of the auditorium of the Schillertheater including three seats on stage so that the audience seems to be part of the minnesinger contest the more so as the light in the auditorium is also switched on. In this act chorus and ballet unify into a whole for Einzug der Gäste. Especially here the Staatsopernchor, chorus master Martin Wright, shows its professional and artistic quality. The same is achieved in the last act when the pilgrimage is choreographed, that is the chorus of pilgrims is assisted by the dancers again. Apart from the fabulous Venusberg ballet they are the strong moments where Sasha Waltz’s choreographed opera makes sense. René Pape’s profound bass is ideal for the landgrave who appears as a ruler of the country rather than Elisabeth’s loving uncle. His elegant and powerful voice is even and balanced in whatever pitch and makes him one of the greatest basses of our time. Peter Sonn has a beautiful lyrical tenor for Walther von der Vogelweide and the bass Tobias Schabel vocally makes a point as Biterolf. Jürgen Sacher as Heinrich der Schreiber and Jan Martinik as Reinmar von Zweter complete the group of minnesingers. Last but not least the opening night turned into a first class musical event as a start of the Berliner Festtage 2014 through Daniel Barenboim’s experienced conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin. Thanks to the acoustics of the theatre the singers never drowned in the brilliant orchestral floods. Yet some of the audience responded negatively at the end to Barenboim’s sometimes selfish way of conducting. I agree that the expectations had flown high beforehand of the artistic duo Waltz-Barenboim. Perhaps it was only too natural that not all of them could be fulfilled. After all opera and ballet are two different forms of performing art and even though ballet is a vital part of Tannhäuser at least in the Paris version of the opera, Richard Wagner composed an operatic drama that already expresses everything through its music. Photo Bernd Uhlig