Gergiev plans ‘inoffensive’ Tannhäuser in St Petersburg
mainIn his dual role as Putin poster-man and the most influential musician in Russia, Valery Gergiev is said to be scheduling a Tannhäuser production at the Mariinsky – one that will not offend the Church and will generally cool tempers after the recent Siberian furore.
The production was announced by a member of the Russian Parliament, Vitaly Milon, who added a number of homophobic comments about the sacked Novosibirsk director, Boris Mezdrich.
Read here (in Russian).
I suppose Wagner did not intend that his opera would contain any offence to the Church.
He kept those offences in reserve for Parsifal.
At least form a catholic point of view (being a catholic agnostic, I can’t judge on other denominations), more or less the whole of Wagner’s work is blasphemous, Parsifal being the worst.
Ach ja…..
Apart from Meistersinger Tannhäuser is the only Wagner opera which is missing in the vast Mariinsky repertoire. Gergiev planned it years ago. According to my information (which is two years old) the stage director will be Waldemar Kamer.
And he told me last Saturday he was planning a Meistersinger in “maybe one and a half season”…
Has there ever been an “offensive” production with Gergiev?
Well, Tannhauser overtly criticizes the Pope. Worse, it implies that Elisabeth’s prayer to the Evening Star is stronger than the Pope’s explicit eternal condemnation of Tannhauser. Shouldn’t that also be grounds for a general boycott of Tannhauser by Catholics?
What is a “catholic agnostic”?
Someone who is proud to have defected from the one true faith! 😀