Visually, it is very traditional and sumptuous and rustic in its detail with attractive costumes, atmospheric lighting and really quite exquisite (not overdone or too fussy when it isn't necessary but never too barren) sets. Imperfect, but very impressive and musically outstanding. When this Met Tannhäuser comes out on DVD, for me it will be up there as one of the better ones. Is Tannhäuser well served on DVD? There are fair few disappointing ones like Munich's, Werner Herzog's, Zürich, Copenhagen's and Baden Baden's, but there are also some great ones like Bayreuth's and Met's (1980s, despite an over-taxed Richard Cassily in the title role) and the 1989 production directed by Wolfgang Wagner. The music is wonderful this said, including Wagner's finest overture (narrowly edging out Flying Dutchman and Meistersinger), Pilgrim's Chorus and Wolfram's Ode to the Evening Star (perhaps the closest Wagner came to an aria), when done right the conflicts between the characters are interesting and the story is moving. Tannhäuser may not be quite one of my favourites from Wagner (Tristan and Isolde, Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Parsifal, Siegfried and Die Walküre), there is nothing wrong with it, just that there is a preference for those five. Admittedly he was a horrible man (few take kindly to anti- seminites), but he was a great composer who wrote stirring and emotional music. His operas are long, needs a lot of patience and stamina and very demanding on the voice and also instrumentalists and people do find it difficult to separate the composer and his art from how he was as a person. Admittedly not everybody is a fan of Wagner.

La opera tannhauser cast