Review

This Tannhäuser is a treat for the ears - but it's a shame about the staging

Neal Cooper appears as Tannhäuser in Longborough Festival Opera's new production
Neal Cooper appears as Tannhäuser in Longborough Festival Opera's new production

Rupert Christansen reviews Longborough Festival Opera's new production of Tannhäuser

The vogue for dumb shows during overtures seems unstoppable, and Longborough’s new production ofTannhäuser contains an egregious example of the genre.

A man sits at a desk in the throes of creativity. A woman enters in agitation, urging him to attend to an unopened letter (a gas bill?).  Mayhem follows when he finally reads its contents. 

This pantomime is protracted for some ten minutes: one suspects reference is being made to Wagner’s troubles with his first wife Minna, but only those au fait with the composer’s biography could pick this up, and otherwise the episode remains inexplicable and unconnected to anything else that occurs.

In other respects, Alan Privett’s low-budget staging – complete with a few endearingly am dram technical glitches – is quietly homely. If that sounds patronising, I should add that it is never insensitive or disrespectful, and that many might prefer its modesty to the fanciful obfuscations of ENO’s current  Tristan und Isolde. If only they’d drop that dumb show. 

Conductor Anthony Negus has consistently been the hero of Longborough’s Wagner cycle, and here his lifetime of immersion in the music vindicates him once again. Taking a muscular and virile approach, he sustains tension through a score that can easily slacken and turn pompous. His handling of the complexities of the awkward second-act finale was cool, calm and collected, and he nurtured singers and players alike - although I initially craved warmer resonance from the strings, by the third act the sound had been enriched impressively.

Hrólfur Saemundsson as Wolfram with Alison Kettlewell as Venus Tannhäuser in Longborough Festival Opera's new production
Hrólfur Saemundsson as Wolfram with Alison Kettlewell as Venus Tannhäuser in Longborough Festival Opera's new production Credit: Matthew Williams-Ellis

Neal Cooper – nephew of boxing champ Henry Cooper, with something of his uncle’s impressive physical presence - may not have the most attractively mellifluous of tenors and he tends to a bruiser’s flatness when he pushes, but he is an intelligent singer with excellent German, and his Tannhäuser was strongly shaped and plausibly characterized, with plenty of heft for his final narration.

The sultry blonde charms of Alison Kettlewell’s Venus and the virginal purity of Erika Mädi Jones’ Elisabeth vied for his affections – both of them projected testing music with admirable security. Hrólfur Saemundsson made a sympathetic Wolfram, Donald Thomson a solid Landgraf.  Negus and his chorus master Philip White are to be particularly congratulated on the young and comely ensemble they have moulded into a splendid parade of noble guests and Roman pilgrims.

Musically, this performance offers high satisfaction; just don’t expect a comparable degree of theatrical sophistication from the staging.

Until 18 June; Box office 01451 830292, www.lfo.org.uk

 

 

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