Credits:

Axel Kober

Description:

This is the 2014 Bayreuth production of *Tannhuser*, which sparked intense controversy at the time of its performance. Needless to say, it was also broadcast in Japan and caused quite a stir there as well. Sebastian Baumgartens production transposes the medieval story into a modern factory (or, alternatively, a womb), presenting the audience with a host of questions. Baumgarten even defines the pregnant (!) Venus as a self-organizing system of metabolism. There, bacteria swarm, various substances ferment, and new life is born unfolding a world quite distinct from the main storyline. The world of spiritual love, worldly love, and the atonement of loveas intended by Wagner (18131883)is torn apart, shattered into pieces, and then attempted to be reconstructed from different perspectives. On this mysterious stage, the singing of Kahl as Tannhuser and Nrnd as Elisabeth shakes off all constraints and s