Metropolitan
Opera at Lincoln Center. Dress Circle
(Seat E120, $147.50).
Story. Tannhauser abandons his love Elisabeth and
lives with Venus. He eventually decides
to leave Venusberg to go back to Elisabeth.
However, his living with Venus is considered a sin that can only be
forgiven by him making a pilgrimage to Rome.
When the pilgrims return, and Tannhauser is not among them, Elisabeth is
broken with grief and is on the verge of dying.
Tannhauser appears, and explains that his transgression can no more be
forgiven than the papal staff bearing leaves again. Venus appears when Tannhauser summons her,
but disappears when Elisabeth’s funeral procession comes down the valley. Tannhauser also dies. Another group of pilgrims arrives, and brings
the Pope’s staff which has blossomed.
Conductor –
James Levine. Venus – Michelle DeYoung,
Tannhauser – Johan Botha, Elisabeth – Eva-Maria Westbroek.
Due to our
expectation of being quite busy this year, we bought only a “3-ticket” package
for this season. And we had to switch
the first one, from October 27 to today, as we will be out of town later this
week. So the decision to curtail the
commitment was a good one.
This was one of
Wagner’s earlier works, and before he fully adopted his later writing style
using leitmotifs and the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art”).
Indeed this
opera felt very different from Wagner’s later works (the Ring Cycle operas and
Tristan and Isolde come to mind.) A good
illustration would be the many orchestral pieces (or mostly orchestral) such as
the overture and ballet at the beginning.
The two combined lasted about twenty minutes, and to the uninitiated
(such as me) at times sounded like Beethoven or even Verdi. Most of my Wagner exposure has been his later
style, so this was both unexpected and
welcome, although at times cognitive dissonance would come in as I had to keep
reminding myself this was Wagner.
The set was
first used in 1977, and is of the “realistic” kind – as much as Venusberg can
be realistic, granted. While I have no
problem with that, there was again some cognitive dissonance as they have no semblance
to the sets used in the Ring Cycle, Parsifal, or Tristan and Isolde. I don’t recall this being a problem with
Meistersinger though.
Levine conducted
the premiere of the 1977 production, this is close to 40 years later. Meanwhile the maestro has suffered through
some health problems. He still needed
the special wheelchair, today he would be pushed in and out for the different
acts; the last few times they did a bit more to “hide” this from the
audience. I don’t know whether he is
continuing to recover, or his health has deteriorated recently, but today he
seemed to favor the right side, a lot.
This was a rather long opera (total performance time around 3:30 hours),
and he appeared quite energetic.
Certainly the sound of the orchestra is as good as I have heard it. I do wonder how he compares with the 1977
Levine though.
When I did the
ticket exchange, I paid a bit extra to upgrade to the Dress Circle. It may just be the great singing voices (of
everyone involved,) or the acoustics are that much better. All the three principals did a marvelous job. While the sympathetic figure is Elisabeth,
Botha as Tannhauser did the most singing.
He did very well, his voice projecting clearly, oftentimes against a
full orchestra, sometimes with a full chorus added in. Both DeYoung and Westbroek fulfilled their
roles well. I did think every now and
then they could swap roles and would do equally well (I don’t know if the
ranges of the roles are the same.) My
one complaint would be they could use a softer voice every now and then; well,
that, and they were all on the stout side.
The minstrels
held a small instrument they referred to as the harp when they sang, with the
harpist in the pit doing the real strumming.
So this opera is one where the harp got a lot of exposure, with many
virtuoso passages; the principal Emmanuel Ceysson did a superb job.
There were many
other singing roles, and several choral numbers. Again uniformly good. Most of the choral numbers were for men,
though.
When I read the
synopsis in the Program Notes, I got the impression this was going to be a
poorly concocted story that wouldn’t quite hang together. Wagner created the story by combining
elements of different and even unrelated sources. In this case a mythical realm of Venus, a
story of the Pope’s staff, a contest of medieval minstrels, and Saint
Elisabeth; a recipe for confusion.
However, I found the plot to be quite easy to follow, and some of the
action shed light on said confusion. For
example, being in love with Venus is condemned, and thus required penance and
forgiveness. Wagner also had a clever
construction where Tannhauser spat out the fact he was with Venus during the
minstrel song contest. A curious fact:
the name Tannhauser was not used in the opera at all, instead he was referred
to by his given name Heinrich.
Looking over
what I wrote, I am surprised how positive it is. I never know how I will react to Wagner’s work
the first time I hear it. I don’t
remember any that I would take such a liking on the first hearing. This is by no means an easy opera to perform,
and much credit has to be given to Levine: whatever condition his physical
health is, he certainly maintained a high level of excellence throughout the
program.
Anne had to go
into Flushing for a morning meeting, so she left our house a bit after 7
am. It was close to 1 am when we got
home. Our dinner was slices of pizza.
The New YorkTimes review is generally positive on Levine’s performance, although the
reviewer points out several places where things got a bit sloppy. He also did a rundown of each singer’s
performance. His remark “singing comes
first in opera” (similar to what I have said before) comes before his
description of Botha as being hefty. He
spared the leading ladies any similar remarks, though. The sad news is Levine has withdrawn from
conducting Lulu, with a new production planned in large part for him.
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