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[Met Performance] CID:270710



Tannhäuser
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, November 25, 1982

Debut : Fritz Hübner, Douglas McDonnell, Victor Ruggiero, Eric Sokolsky, Konstantin Walmsley







Tannhäuser received nine performances this season.
The Paris version was performed.

Review 1:

Donald Henahan in The New York Times
Met Opera: Eva Marton

The arrival on the scene of a fully matured Wagnerian singer is always good news, however long we must wait between dispatches from the front. The news today is that Eva Marton has arrived. The Hungarian artist, portraying Elisabeth r Elisabeth for the first time with the Metropolitan Opera in Monday night's "Tannhäuser," showed that she has the vocal and temperamental qualities to become the opera world's next important dramatic soprano. She may, in fact, already be there. The timbre is right, the sheer staying power is impressive and the instincts are those of a born actress.

Miss Marton is a good step below Birgit Nilsson in power, as who is not. But she has the amplitude and penetration of a Leonie Rysanek, at least, and further expansion of the tone without serious loss of beauty is not out of the question. Her performance as Tannhäuser's virginal ideal woman compared favorably with the famous Rysanek approach in emotional intensity. But Miss Marton's handling of Elisabeth's strongest scene, the one in which she confronts the chivalric swordsmen who want to hack up Tannhäuser because of his hymn to sexual pleasure, was at once less flamboyant and more dramatically persuasive than Miss Rysanek's. This one scene, if nothing else, would have proved that in Miss Marton we are dealing with a Wagnerian heroine of real importance. Her "Dich, teure Halle" and Prayer were on the same level.

This "Tannhäuser," the season's second, turned out to be newsworthy in other respects as well. Richard Cassilly dropped out at the last minute owing to that famous ailment known as "indisposition," giving Edward Sooter his first opportunity to sing the title role in this house. This Kansas-born tenor made his Metropolitan debut in 1979 as Tannhäuser during the national tour and last season appeared as Florestan in "Fidelio." The part of Tannhäuser lies so high that it needs a unicorn sort of voice – a heldencountertenor would be ideal — but Mr. Sooter was more than a mere fill-in. He acted competently and sang expressively, though he was often hard-pressed on top. Strain showed particularly in the screaming match that followed Tannhäuser's sensational disclosure in the song contest that he found life with Venus not an unattractive alternative to the monkish existence led by his fellow minstrels.

As the viable alternative, Tatiana Troyanos more than made his point. Venus should exude sexuality, visually and vocally, and Miss Troyanos could not be faulted on either score. The production puts her in a costume that is a triumph of Minimalism and she fills the requirements so well that only an Elisabeth of Miss Marton's appeal could possibly draw a Tannhäuser away from the Venusberg in time for the opera's second scene to begin.

The performance caught the eye for other reasons. At one point in the third act, balloons already hung in the flies for next week's "Parade" began to float down through the Wartburgian trees. One sailed right up to Bernd Weikl, the night's excellent Wolfram, who carried it offstage as naturally as if Wagner had written the episode into his scenario and returned to hearing Tannhläuser tell about his trip to Rome.

Fritz Hubner, in his Metropolitan debut, struck plausibly regal poses but was a rough-toned Landgrave. The role of the shepherd, sung in the past by a female soprano, was handed over to Bill Bieber, a 12-year-old, whose voice was white-toned and honky in the classic boyish way, but appealing. Richard J. Clark, a new Biterolf, fitted in well. James Levine's conducting was well-paced and energetic.

But back to Miss Marton. She came to the Metropolitan in 1976 as Eva in "Die Meistersinger," later sang Chrysothemis in "Elektra" and was one of last season's pleasanter surprises as the Princess in "Die Frau ohne Schatten." Obviously, she has not shied away from the light-heavyweight German repertory in the past. Now she is scheduled to take on truly heroic soprano roles such as Brünnhilde and Isolde, though not, apparently, at the Met. Can anyone explain why.

Search by season: 1982-83

Search by title: Tannhäuser,



Met careers

• James Levine [Conductor]
• Richard Cassilly [Tannhäuser]
• Eva Marton [Elisabeth]
• Bernd Weikl [Wolfram]
• Tatiana Troyanos [Venus]
• Fritz Hübner [Hermann]
• Robert Nagy [Walther]
• Charles Anthony [Heinrich]
• Richard J. Clark [Biterolf]
• Richard Vernon [Reinmar]
• Bill Blaber [Shepherd]
• Charles Coleman [Page]
• Douglas McDonnell [Page]
• Erik Peter Mortensen [Page]
• David Owen [Page]
• Jean-Briac Perrette [Page]
• Victor Ruggiero [Page]
• Eric Sokolsky [Page]
• Konstantin Walmsley [Page]
• Otto Schenk [Production]
• Norbert Vesak [Choreographer]
• Günther Schneider-Siemssen [Set Designer]
• Patricia Zipprodt [Costume Designer]
• Gil Wechsler [Lighting Designer]
• Phebe Berkowitz [Stage Director]