For Tannhäuser, however, the option of picking up where he left off with Venus sounds pretty good. When a haggard Tannhäuser finally returns, he admits his meeting with the Pope did not go as planned forgiveness, it seems, is not his long suit when it comes to transgressions of an erotic nature with That Woman. And it must be said, that throughout the entire performance, Jakubiak, with her powerful voice and in-the-moment dramatic presence, is the only member of the cast that made any of this seem believable, right up to the moment of her demise. The Venusberg they inhabit, however, has all the appeal of a bare-bones, red-light strip club. And since LA Opera is performing Wagner’s 1861 Paris version of the opera, the overture melds directly into a ballet where lithe dancers cavort in Kama Sutra-esque variations. The problem is, the opera’s hero, Tannhäuser (tenor, Issachah Savage), has, unbeknownst to his countrymen, been residing in the mystical, erotic realm of the Venusberg, arm-in-arm (and very much more) with his seductive paramour Venus (soprano Yulia Matochkina). Instead, what we see are noble knights and ladies in elegant cocktail attire more attuned to the sophistication of Noel Coward or the ball from “My Fair Lady.” For them, love is chaste, “No sex please!” If Louisa Muller’s direction and Gottfried Pilz’s sets and costumes represented the opera’s original 13th-century setting, the stage would be filled with sword-bearing Germanic knights who take time out now and then to compete in signing contests. Just the chance to hear a live 147-piece (brass resounding) orchestra, full men’s and women’s chorus, and a cast of dynamic vocalists, all under the direction of LA Opera’s music director and Wagnerian master, James Conlon, is transformative - especially after all we’ve been through for the last year and a half. That is certainly the experience offered by Los Angeles Opera’s production of Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser,” which opened Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In holistic medicine there is a therapy called a “Sound Bath” that heals by immersing the individual in an all-consuming, meditative world of music and song.
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