Tannhauser

I wasn't great at posting about the operas I went to last year - by the time I'd sit down to it, it seemed like it was always too late! And maybe November is too late for New Year resolutions, but I'm gonna try this time!

Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

So, last Saturday was an early start - 4pm! For a 12 noon matinée in NYC. I guess the US hadn't moved to winter time yet so we only had 4 hours time difference with them.

Tannhäuser was my first Met HD opera of the season. I have to say I have become quite a Wagner fan. The music was just divine, carrying you through 3 hours of opera (with two 35-minute intermissions, so a total of over 4 hours). The production was old, the sets not very imaginative, but the music and the voices more than made up for it in my mind. And while I find it hard to take Johan Botha seriously as a romantic lead, he's got a smooth, beguiling voice that makes you forget his physique! (And I'm sure he's a very nice man!)

Sooo, all in all, a lovely evening, and I was home before 9 o'clock!