Tannhäuser, a metaphor for an artist or simply a man on a mission, refuses to accept this separation and wanders between these antagonistic worlds. His goal is not to reconcile the contradiction, but rather to negate it with his determination to inhabit all worlds. He searches for answers to his yearning for fulfilment in spiritual mysticism, in love based on Christian teaching or in unadulterated sex. Yet, there is always something missing and his hunger is never stilled. For this reason, Tannhäuser never seems to settle. There is always something driving him further. His sense of revulsion at himself becomes even greater than his rejection of mediocrity, of all those content to compromise (just as the Wartburg minstrels, with their anaemic art, do), rather than exploiting life’s full potential. Tannhäuser is motion with no destination in sight. In the same way, Richard Wagner never seemed able to complete this work, no matter how often it was reworked.
Casting & credits
Richard Wagner
Opera in three acts in German with English and German subtitles
Libretto by Richard Wagner
Creation at Munich Staatsoper – May 2017
Conductor Kirill Petrenko Director, sets, costumes and lighting Romeo Castellucci Choreography Cindy Van Acker Dramaturge Piersandra Di Matteo Video Marco Giusti Chorus Master Sören Eckhoff With Elsa Benoit, Georg Zeppenfeld, Klaus Florian Vogt, Christian Gerhaher/Matthias Goerne, Anja Harteros/Annette Dasch, Peter Lobert, Ralf Lukas, Ulrich Reß, Elena Pankratova, Dean Power
About
“All the ingredients for success are present in this Munich Tannhäuser by Kirill Petrenko and Romeo Castellucci. The Italian director gives us something to see and think about by reinventing an opera that we feel we are rediscovering at every turn. The Russian conductor achieves the feat of combining energy with chamber music clarity, providing unfailing support for a superlative cast.” – David Verdier, Wanderersite, 6 June 2017
“There are many forms of theatrical modernity, and today’s opera stage knows how to welcome the most diverse aesthetics. By inviting Romeo Castellucci for the first time, the Munich Opera has placed his new production of Tannhäuser in a perspective that is less narrative and closer to the visual arts, in a way following on from Hermann Nitsch’s production of Saint Francis of Assisi a few years ago – but Castellucci, a true man of the theatre as well as a man of the image, has built a much stronger show than Nitsch’s.” – Dominique Adrian, Resmucia.com, 1 June 2017
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