Saffron Opera Group presents Wagner’s Tannhäuser
Superb cast of rising stars and established singers
14:30 – Sunday, 11 September 2022
‘The most intense, indeed shattering experience of the work which I have had for many years… Who would want to go to Bayreuth when they can go to Saffron Hall?’ Michael Tanner (The Spectator) on Tristan und Isolde
Building on the sensational success of their 2019 performance of Tristan und Isolde, and previous triumphant concerts of the Ring cycle, Parsifal, and Die Meistersinger, Saffron Opera Group presents Wagner’s Tannhäuser in a concert performance on 11 September 2022. They perform the so-called ‘Paris version’ of the opera, which incorporates lavish music for ballet.
The performance was originally scheduled for 2020 but, like so many other events, had to be postponed because of the Covid pandemic. Founder Francis Lambert, speaking about the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, says, ‘We are both relieved and excited that we can eventually put on this wonderful opera after two years of frustrating pandemic delays. We’re making every effort to ensure that it will be a performance that will outshine even our own previous triumphs.’
The opera presents a battle between the eternal forces of love and sex: or, in Wagnerian terminology, between sacred and profane desire. With its powerful and straightforward plot, a theme which anyone who has been in love can relate to, and some of the composer’s most frequently-performed ‘hit’ tunes, Tannhäuser is one of Wagner’s most direct and easily accessible works.
The plot tells of a medieval knight who must choose between the sexual pleasures of goddess Venus and the love of the pure-hearted Elisabeth. Eventually he chooses sacred love and seeks atonement from the Pope for his former lascivious behaviour. The Pope merely mocks him for his worldliness, but the dying prayers of Elisabeth save his immortal soul just as he himself perishes too.
Saffron Opera Group employs both well-established international stars and up-and-coming new talents. Singing Tannhäuser is tenor Neal Cooper, a performer who has appeared in major roles at Covent Garden, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, and the Opéra National de Paris. Recently he appeared in a concert performance of Parsifal with the Berlin Philharmonie under Sir Simon Rattle. (He is also immensely proud of the family connection with his uncle, the legendary boxer Sir Henry Cooper.) In the role of Venus is the renowned soprano Elaine McKrill, a firm favourite with SOG audiences, who has already appeared as Isolde, Brünnhilde and Kundry with the company. ‘Superb… captured the full range of Isolde’s complex feelings towards Tristan,’ wrote Michael Tanner of The Spectator.
Completing the central trio of lovers is rising British/Australian soprano Samantha Crawford as Elisabeth. Already a great Wagnerian-in-the-making, Crawford won the Wagner Society’s Singing Competition in 2016, and Opera wrote of her ‘sweetly voluminous soprano…and impressive Wagnerian credentials.’
The role of Tannhäuser’s friend Wolfram, who sings one of the opera’s best loved arias ‘O du mein holder Abendstern’ (or Hymn to the Evening Star), is taken by baritone Richard Burkhard. Of his performance in SOG’s Parsifal as Amfortas, Seen and Heard noted his ‘anguished and deeply moving performance… a revelation.’ Another SOG favourite, the celebrated international Wagnerian bass Andrew Greenan, is Elisabeth’s father Hermann.
The cast is completed by returning SOG stalwarts Paul Carey Jones (Biterolf), Brian Smith Walters (Walther) and Ben Thapa, a former member of best-selling opera-pop group G4 (Heinrich), together with Simon Grange (Reinmar), winner of the Mastersingers Wagner Vocal Competition 2022. The role of the Shepherd Boy is taken by treble Joshua Davidson, the senior chorister at St John’s College, Cambridge.
Under the authoritative baton of Michael Thorne, who has conducted all SOG’s previous performances, and with a hand-picked orchestra and a seventy-strong chorus with singers from no few than four choirs, Tannhäuser promises only to increase Saffron Opera Group’s already stunning reputation for Wagnerian excellence.
Saffron Opera Group was founded by opera-loving Saffron Walden residents Paul Garland and Francis Lambert in 2013 and hit the ground running with a performance of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger in 2014. Its ambitious concerts of the Ring cycle and Parsifal have been among the most successful UK Wagnerian events of recent years.
Saffron Opera Group performs Tannhäuser – 2.30pm, Sunday 11 September 2022
Saffron Hall
Audley End Road
Saffron Walden
CB11 4UH
Box Office: 0845 548 7650 – www.saffronhall.com – www.saffronopera.org.uk