Venus in different Tannhäuser productions
Here we have collected some photos of different Venuses in Tannhäuser. If you want to contribute, please send photo to the editor with information about production.
Kasper Holten (Copenhagen): Susanne Resmark as Venus
Tannhäuser (Stig Fogh Andersen) and Venus (Susanne Resmark) in Kasper Holten's Copenhagen production of Tannhäuser. Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen
Venus is Tannhäuser’s muse. She is not a woman, she is rather an aspect of Tannhäuser’s person, she is his inspiration, the stone in his shoe, she is what pokes him and never leaves him in peace, because he as an artist needs to express himself to the world. But she also seduces him and holds on to him, sucking out his power of life. Whereas Elisabeth can be read as a complete woman, a woman with love and lust. She loves a man, but she also understands that he regularly has to leave her alone—and this is the dilemma that leads to her downfall.
For me the Venusberg is in this sense an inner, psychological state of mind.
Kasper Holten in interview with Wagneropera.net
Götz Friedrich (Bayreuth Festival): Gwyneth Jones as Venus
Gwyneth Jones as Venus in Götz Friedrich's Bayreuth production. The Venusberg scene in this production is visually spectacular.
Nikolaus Lehnhoff (Baden-Baden): Waltraud Meier as Venus
Waltraud Meier as Venus in Nikolaus Lehnhoff's Baden-Baden production.
David Alden (Munich): Waltraud Meier as Venus
René Kollo as Tannhäuser and Waltraud Meier as Venus in David Alden's Munich production.
Jens Daniel Herzog (Zürich): Isabelle Kabatu as Venus
Isabelle Kabatu as Venus in Jens Daniel Herzog's Zürich production.
Peter Seiffert (Tannhäuser) and Isabelle Kabatu (Venus) in Jens Daniel Herzog's Zürich production of Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser.
Bayreuth Festival 1891: Rosa Sucher as Venus
Rosa Sucher as Venus in Cosima Wagner's production of Tannhäuser at Bayreuth - the first time Tannhäuser was produced at the Festival.