We left at the interval...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday June 27 2004 Conductor: Kazushi Ono. Production and choreography: Jan Fabre. Hermann: Stephen Milling. Tannhäuser: Louis Gentile. Wolfram von Eschenbach: Stephan Loges. Walther von der Vogelweide: Daniel Kirch. Biterolf: Andrew Greenan. Heinrich der Schreiber: Donal Byrne. Reinmar von Zweter: Jacques Does. Elisabeth: Adrienne Dugger. Venus: Natascha Petrinsky. Ein junger Hirt: Anne-Catherine Gillet. Don’t you often wonder why you keep going back to the opera? Second-rate music, dodgily performed by a second-rate orchestra and singers with not a clue about acting, fights for attention with latecomers, coughing, mobile phones, the clatter of programmes falling from knees, hunger, heat and a sore bum. But occasionally the magic happens: something gels, it all comes together and we are raised to a different plane; time stands still, your neighbours stop fidgeting (brutes though they are, even they sense something is happening), your bottom goes perfectly numb, ...

Paris Version (1861) Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, April 13 2004 Conductor: Myung-Whun Chung. Production: Andreas Homoki . Tannhäuser: Peter Seiffert. Elisabeth: Petra-Maria Schnitzer. Venus: Ildiko Komlosi. Wolfram: Ludovic Tézier. Hermann: Franz-Josej Selig. Young shepherd: Katija Dragojevic. Walther: Finnur Bjarnason. Biterof: Robert Bork. Heinrich: Nikolai Schukoff. Reinmar: Nicolas Courjal. Radio France Chorus, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Simple production, strong cast Director Andreas Homoki was responsible for an excellent Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Châtelet 10 years ago and, more recently, an equally excellent Zemlinsky double-bill in Brussels. His approach to Tannhäuser in Paris didn't please everyone. Perhaps Wagner fans are fed up with Konzept productions and would like, for once, a more literal approach to their hero's (or god's) works. Homoki was booed on the first night. But as he didn't appear at the second, the loud applause went on uni...

Paris, Théâtre des Champs Elysees, Sept 10 2003 Orchestre National de France, Kurt Masur; Deborah Voigt, soprano. Wagner: Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf dem Wartburg 1. Overture 2. Aria „Dich, teure Halle“ from Act II Wagner: Tristan und Isolde. Prelude and Liebestod . Wagner Comparison is said to be odious. As I’d heard Tristan , with Deborah Voigt, in Vienna this spring, it was impossible not to hear Wednesday’s Wagner/Bruckner concert (Orchestre National de France, Kurt Masur, Deborah Voigt) without comparing, and that turned out to be odious indeed. I wonder how Masur feels conducting such a such scrappy ensemble as France’s National Orchestra. In Tannhäuser , shaky woodwind attacks; trombones not in time with the strings; at the end of the overture, all that rapid, chromatic business that goes on among the upper strings while the main theme continues as a march underneath: it was unintelligible, there was no way of knowing what they were supposed to be playing. And in the Pre...