If you are scared to approach Wagner overwhelming work, Tannhauser is the right opera to start.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125061 in Music
• Released on: 2003-02-11
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered

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Customer Reviews

Good and Bad
I was very excited to get this stereo Tannhauser, since the ones I owned were the Caissily\Levine and Cluytens(56). I decided to go with this after listening to Soltis Meistersinger(2nd version) and couldnt get over the clarity, hoping for similar revelations. Unfortunetly, this was not the case. It started out well enough with an exceptional Venus sung by Christa Ludwig-definetly the best interpretation I have ever heard but from the outset of Rene Kollo-the famous first song-I began having misgivings about his interp. I found myself feeling this was pretty uninspired throughout, with a brief moment of enjoyment returning in the third act. Overall, this was not even close to the Cluytens version-which is still my favourite despite less than perfect sound-or the Sawallish which I aquired afterward and am much more satisfied with. Solti and Wagner seem to be hit or miss. Hits-Das Rheingold, Siegfired, Gotterdammerung, second Meister, Parsifal, Lohengrin. Misses-Die Walkure, Trisolde, Hollander,first Meister,----a little of both--Tannhauser. If you want great sound-go with Sinopli,or sawallish(if you can find it). if you want great performance-Cluytens or Sawallisch(Phillips). The Levine DVD is good, not great but certainly passable.

A Reference Tannhauser
Following several reissues in CD and a new 24-bit super digital transfer (!), this now legendary Tannhauser sounds younger than ever. Of course this has a lot to do with Solti's flamboyant style and his marvellous orchestra, in peak form. The score really sounds like it is in cinemascope and Technicolor and this CD is probably the closest thing to Ben Hur on a CD: the listener has really his money's worth of musical emotions!
But the beauty of Solti (versus a late Karajan) lies in the fact that for him an opera remains...an opera, and not a symphony with voice accompaniment. So during all Solti's career on disc, there will be this willingness to find the appropriate singers to "compete" effectively with the magnificent orchestras he conducts (like the Wiener Phiharmoniker here, or the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at times in the Wagner operas). In the 50s and the 60s, picking good Wagnerian singers was still a relatively easy job, but in the seventies, the going started to get tough...
However, in my opinion, this set is a great success from a vocal standpoint. Let's the put the record straight immediately: Rene Kollo is a great Tannhauser, but I guess it is the fate of the heldentenors to get the slack of older generations: Windgassen got hammered because he was not Melchior, Kollo was hammered because he was not Windgassen, and Jerusalem got hammered because he wasn't...Kollo! Rene Kollo throws his heart and soul in the part like there is no tomorrow and really impersonates very well the tempted Wartburg singer. The "return from Rome" is declamated in style and we are lucky to have this memory of Kollo in the part at a time (1971) where he hadn't taken on very big Wagner role yet. The voice is therefore extremely fresh and full of brilliance.
Among the ladies, the Venus of Christa Ludwig is an absolute reference: warm of voice, extremely good with the text, she nails the part like no one else: let me on the next bus to the Venusberg please!
Helga Dernesch is more problematic. She has big enough a voice to sing the part but Elisabeth is more than a Brunnhilde in waiting, and Dernesch does not reflect that , since every note she sings is sung fortissimo. We prefer lighter, more fragile and more human Elisabeths, such as Anja Silja.
Victor Braun is a perfect, very moving Wolfram - he was a Hans Sachs in Paris at the end of the 1980s...he would be the tonal equivalent of a baritone Kurt Moll. Last but not least, Hans Sotin sings a very good Landgrave.
Hilariously, the remaining comprimarii parts (with sometimes just a couple of bars to sing) are given to first-class singers: Hollweg! Equiluz! Jungworth! Bailey!
The chorus is phenomenal as can be expected, but the female entry chorus in Act II is a bit strident.
Overall, an amazing performance of Tannhauser's Parisian version. Auditors more inclined to the experience of the theatre will choose Sawallisch in Bayreuth in 1962, very different but very good as well. I would be at odds to make a choice between these two marvellous versions though.

A Tenor's Traviata---Perfection!
Tannhauser is one of the most challenging tenor roles ever written by Wagner after Tristan and the young Siegfried. It is challenging because like Violetta, the first act of Tannhauser requires a voice of agility and power to go through the music's high tessitura. The second half requires a more dramatic voice that reminds the audience of Tannhauser's agony (not very much unlike Tristan's agonizing third act).

Besides the challenge of assigning the role to a great tenor who can sing it (and some say that only Melchior can do the role right...I disagree...Melchior sounds too porky), the opera also needs a great conductor to create a contrast of musical worlds created by the Venusberg and the Wartburg. You also need an excellent baritone who sings the role of Wolfram with an earnest, heartbreaking singing acting talent that brings the character's contrasting characteristics to Tannhauser's more devilish and fickle role.

And of course, there also has to be two great prima donnas who have the singing and the acting talent to bring to life the characters of Elisabeth and Venus. A pure jugenlich dramatisch soprano would be perfect for Elizabeth, whereas a more sensuous voice is needed for the pagan goddess Venus.

This recording delivers all of that, and let me start with the conductor. Georg Solti is accused by many for his rough hand with Wagner's scores (or with all scores, for that matter). I find that by the time he recorded Tannhauser though, he had had his experience with Mozart and had developed a style that put his conducting of any Germanic composer's music in its right style (unlike the older Solti recordings where everything is gung-ho!). His Tannhauser creates two worlds of varying orchestral timbre, beginning with Venusberg's most sensuous and erotic music. The overture is done so beautifully, and never before did the Paris Venusberg scene come to life like in this recording. His Wartburg scene provides a most amazing contrast to Venusberg. I think that this is one of his best Wagnerian outputs after the Ring, and I would definitely recommend this as the best conducted Tannhauser. Of course, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's brilliance adds to the recording's many merits.

Now to the singers. I believe the best singer in this recording is Christa Ludwig in the role of Venus. No one else showed much vocal beauty in such a sensuous role, and while some dramatic sopranos had sung the role before, no one does it better than our favorite dramatic mezzo. It is sexy and voluptuous at the same time, and Ludwig characterizes the goddess of love masterfully. The other prima donna in this recording, Helga Dernesch, puts forth a radiant, pure-sounding tone that gives the listener an impression of kindness and compassion for a role that requires such characteristics. I would find Gundula Janowitz more ideal for the role, but Helga Dernesch more than efficiently delivers. It is an artistically perfect, well-rounded, tasteful, and beautiful Elisabeth. Braun is adequate as Wolfram, and one would have wished Fischer Dieskau or Hermann Prey in the role, but it isn't a bad interpretation.

Of course, this brings us to the title role. Many accuse Rene Kollo of using his inadequate resources in singing this demanding Wagnerian tenor part. I would disagree with other reviewers. I believe that more so than other tenors, Kollo offers a youthful tone and dramatic sensibility (and a certain demonicness) to a role that demands a high tessitura (which he has), a dramatic sense (which Kollo innately has), and an innate sense of eroticism (which he also has). I certainly prefer him to Lauritz Melchior, who sounds too porky for my taste. Sure, he can sing the role right, and while his Siegmund, Siegfried, and Tristan have all the notes, that's all they have. It's not a very dramatically interesting performance, and often times he sounds piggish. I think Kollo makes a better Tannhauser (and sings all the above parts much better too, in an artistic point of view). One would desire Domingo's voice of course, but at the time of recording this opera, his German was still terrible. If he could still sing the role now and rerecord it again, that would be amazing of course.

A desirable cast:
Tannhauser: Domingo
Elisabeth: Nina Stemme
Venus: Michelle de Young
Landgraf: Rene Pape
Wolfram: Olaf Bar or Thomas Hampson

Conductor: Christian Thielemann, or preferably, Pappano

This recording though, has more than enough merits to make it the best Tannhauser recording in the market. A perfect one has yet to come (as with every other Wagner opera), but for now, this one is the best.