Tannhäuser - Sydney Opera House - 16 October 2007

A peculiarly comic affair by Sandra Bowdler

Wagner: Tannhäuser Opera Australia Sydney Opera House 16 October 2007

Director Elke Neidhardt is fond of finding the jokes in Wagner, yes, including Parsifal, with synchronised swimming flower maidens in Adelaide in 2001. In this Opera Australia production which dates originally to 1998, the penchant for hilarity might be thought to be carried to excess, although there are many who think Wagner deserves to be ridiculed. If that is the case however why bother with his operas at all? It is one of the problems of performing Wagnerian opera in the post-WW II environment, that to take it too seriously courts cries of Nazi sympathies, yet as operas they are works which must be performed with some concept of their worth to make any sense of them at all. In the present instance, the chorus in Act III, is sung by the returning pilgrims holding jolly plastic bags with I 'love' Roma on them, indicating the frivolous state of religion in the Holy City, and Neidhardt refers to Wagner's "tongue-in-cheek ... treatment of the self-righteous pilgrims" in Act I; but if the pilgrims' repentance is not treated seriously in Act III, why should we care for Tannhäuser's distress at being rejected? On other occasions, the jollity is less jarring. At the conclusion of Act I, the Landgrave and his party appear kitted up in Prussian hunting outfits - Tyrolean hats, plus fours and so on, and indulge in a picnic, with teams of dachshunds escorted onto the stage just before the Act II curtain. But perhaps only a German-born director could really get away with this. In many other respects it is a stunning production, most notably during the overture. Wagner specifies an emerald-green waterfall, and here we have a brilliant effect, created by laser lighting, of an emerald-green surface, both watery and misty, through which figures emerge and sink. These gradually emerge as a variety of characters who would not be out of place in a Berlin cabaret, including a mock nun, a representation of a plastic blow-up sex doll, and an ichthyphallic little old cherub, who emerges (detumescent) in Act II, representing Tannhäuser's continued carnal desires. Venus is a strapping figure in black, trimmed with fur (refer Sacher-Masoch, of course), but poor Tannhäuser suffers under a hideously unflattering orange wig. Elisabeth's outfit is also somewhat peculiar, a red frock one might have imagined more appropriate to Venus, were it not for the inset polka-dotted train; and why does she first appear with a trench coat over this? The minstrels' court is however very effectively rendered, with rows of galleries for the court denizens. There are a number of winged figures which I first took to be Prussian eagles, but they could equally be bats or science-fiction insect creatures, and which perch around the set at different times. It is probably the merest literal-mindedness to expect the Pope's staff to actually burst into green leaves, but gold does not seem to be quite right. Musically, there was much to enjoy, although great vocalism was rather at a premium. Opera Australia's artistic director Richard Hickox is not especially known as a Wagnerian, but he did a sterling job, with orchestral playing following the surging rhythms of the work's architecture with disciplined lushness. The Opera Australia chorus was equally excellent, with a rousing Pilgrim's Chorus sung with a seriousness at odds with the directorial conceit. The most gorgeous sounds of the night came from Janice Watson's Elisabeth, her large but warm soprano matching her dramatic involvement. Milijana Nikolic was called in at short notice to replace an ailing Bernadette Cullen for this season; her height and imperious manner are perfect for Venus, as is her equally large and accurate mezzo. The title role was sung by Richard Berkeley-Steele, a seasoned English Wagnerian who nonetheless seemed vocally ill at ease in the first two acts (that wig can't have helped). His intonation and tone seemed to firm up in the last (wigless) act however, and his last soliloquy was lyrical and moving. Jonathan Summers as Wolfram was somewhat lacking in charisma, but he also rose to the vocal occasion in Act III, singing smoothly and with feeling. The Landgrave was sung with resonant authority by bass Daniel Sumegi, always an impressive performer. Wagner operas will no doubt always be a difficult proposition for a modern audience, particularly in Australia which has not had a strong tradition of performing this repertoire. Neidhardt's sublime and triumphant Adelaide Ring cycle did much to raise the Wagnerian stakes in this country, and it is interesting to see one of her earlier conceptions; if it does not match the glories of her Ring, it certainly points the way towards it.

Text © Sandra Bowdler