Tannhauser, On Radio Now !

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07bv9h3

I know my little Opera posts are not hugely followed here on AB, but this is a smashing working of one of my favourite operas....not live, but recorded recently.

Enjoy !

[joggerjayne]

Oh, mikey, I missed it.

I don't know much Hartmut Haenchen. I can probably find it on iPlayer.

I'm always surprised that the overture from Tannhauser doesn't dominate the listeners' vote in the Classic FM Hall of Fame. Wagner wrote some great overtures ... Rienzi is exquisite, F Dutchman could convince you that you're caught in a tempest on the high seas ... but Tannhauser is just in a class of its own. When it builds up to the "big bit" (excuse the lack of proper terminology) it is just spine tingling.

Is it one of those works that, when you get to know one version, that becomes the the pace at which it should be conducted? A slower recording sounds laboured and ponderous. A more lively recording sounds rushed and undignified. I have the Solti version, which I love. I used to have a different recording on vinyl. I can't remember which one.

Mark Twain described Tannhauser as "music to make one drunk with pleasure". And it is. It's wonderful, isn't it. Thank you for giving us all the heads up on this, mikey. If I can find it on iPlayer, I'll listen to it one evening this week.

x

[mikey4444]

JJ....only too glad to be of service !

Its "Peter Grimes" next week !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07cy56g

If you can't wait, here is performance filmed on the beach at Aldeburgh itself. Those Sea Interludes are incredible !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FfkF3q4cDk

[joggerjayne]

I've been listening to it on iPlayer tonight. I'm really enjoying it.

Does anyone else, like me, still say it "tan how ser"

(as opposed to "tan hoy ser")

I know I'm doing it wrong, but it sounds much nicer.

[shoota]

Wagner is for romantics.

[jno]

that's coz it is spelt wrong, it should be Tannhäuser, but umlauts are seen in Britain as a symbol of the tyrannical superstate and so widely ignored.

[shoota]

There is an Ummm lout on here...

[joggerjayne]

An umlaut as in ... Moët (et Chandon)

[jno]

that's a diaeresis, to get you to pronounce two vowels separately, not to get you to pronounce them differently. As in, er, poëm.