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DTSTAMP:20260426T231649Z
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260621
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260426
DESCRIPTION:Jun 21 - Jul 11\, 2026\nTo Richard Wagner\, Tannhäuser was the
  problem child in his canon\, the opera he never got right. The finicky Ca
 nadian heldentenor Jon Vickers—unsurpassed in his generation as the Mast
 er’s Siegmund\, Tristan\, and Parsifal—studied the role but refused to
  perform it\, regarding it as the “denial” of everything he believed i
 n. Incidentally\, it’s also a holy terror to sing. But is the medieval m
 instrel of Wagner’s ravishingly melodic tapestry truly so unrelatable? O
 ne the one hand\, he’s a sensualist\, the temporarily willing boy toy to
  the pagan goddess Venus. On the other\, he’s in the thrall of his overl
 ord’s niece Elisabeth\, an earthly Madonna. Zurich’s Tannhäuser is th
 e strapping former Mozartean Eric Cutler\, whose transition into the heroi
 c Wagner rep has been earning him great press. His love interests are Rach
 ael Wilson (Venus) and Christina Nilsson (Elisabeth)—aspects of the Eter
 nal Feminine that are sometimes effectively portrayed by a single soprano.
  The cult favorite Christian Gerharer appears as Tannhäuser’s good budd
 y Wolfram\, who lacks his pal’s sex drive but chastely adores the saintl
 y Elisabeth\, whence the opera’s elegiac hit tune (cue the Song to the E
 vening Star). We’re on our guard about the director Thorleifur Arnasson\
 , of Iceland\, who advanced to the majors in 2024 with a symbol-clotted\, 
 barely animate Tristan und Isolde for the Bayreuth Festival. Will he notic
 e that this opera requires a great deal more action? But we’re very inte
 rested in the conductor Tugan Sokhiev\, whose biography tracks that of the
  Promethean Valery Gergiev in ways that are almost uncanny. Like Gergiev\,
  Sokhiev is Ossetian\, from the rugged region of the Caucasus. Like Gergie
 v\, Sokhiev studied in St. Petersburg with the legendary maker of maestros
  Ilya Musin. And like Gergiev\, Sokhiev skyrocketed to the top of the Russ
 ian music world at an early age. But as kingpin first of St. Petersburg’
 s Mariinsky Theatre and now Vladimir Putin’s music czar of all Russia\, 
 Gergiev\, 72\, has rendered himself unemployable in the West. Whereas Sokh
 iev\, formerly music director of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre\, is taking of
 f among us like a shot.
LOCATION:Opernhaus Zürich\, Falkenstrasse 1\, 8001 Zürich\, Switzerland
SUMMARY:Tannhäuser\, by Richard Wagner
URL;VALUE=TEXT:https://airmail.news/arts-intel/events/richard-wagner-tannha
 user-by-richard-wagner
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