A Tannhäuser begging for silence

Lise Lindstrom, undisputed Queen of our hearts

Last Tannhäuser in Athens on February the 2nd, and this time no fire lit. At all.

But if you think that this was a boring, incident-less performance, you 're wrong!

Act 3, John Treleaven is lying on stage, in 10 minutes the opera will be over and it's the point when Tannhauser sings "Da sank ich in Vernichtung dumpf darnieder ".

Backstage, the Children Choir and the extras (that jump out of the holes of the stage at the finale) are getting prepared for their entrance...Not in silence though. The noise they make reaches the audience and it's more than audible. It's actually annoying.

John Treleaven seems patient but after about half a minute he just cannot contain himself:

"Sssssshhhhhht!!! QUIET!!!!!!"

...he shouts

....and throws away his stick in anger.


Many things were said after the performance and people seemed divided.
Others justified Treleaven's reaction (myself included) and others said that his reaction was disgraceful, towards Wagner's music and the audience.

"Wolfram, those boys won't let me sing!"

It doesn't really matter whether the kids that were producing the noise were the Choir or the extras. What really matters is that after 4 performances in total, and after 3,5 hours of singing a part as exhausting as Tannhäuser, the administration of the Athens Megaron or whoever was in charge of taking care of these children, forced an artist to react this way.

"It wasn't us, it was them who did it!!!!"

My guess though is that Treleavan's anger was accumulating as last night's performance happened to gather a very bad audience that seemed to be suffering from an epidemic of tuberculosis.
(Shut your mouth u coughers or stay home!)
There were moments when you could hear more coughing than music.
(Anger management: breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out ....)

HOWEVER

Even an incident like that, was not enough to ruin another wonderful performance of the wagnerian masterpiece.

Martin Snell

...and once again, Lise Lindstrom, Martin Snell and Ashley Holland were the leads that stood out.

...and once again, maestro Philippe Auguin made the audience cheer like mad!
I even saw a very well known greek soprano, that was sitting at the first row, standing and clapping like crazy when Auguin went on stage...

Lindstrom and hero Auguin!

If the musicians of the Greek National Opera Orchestra insist that Auguin is a dictator and that his demands were over their possibilities, I will just have to inform them that the way they played on opening night and last night should be their AVERAGE performance and not something exceptional
(avoiding to mention that the brass that were "playing" backstage were pre-recorded).



============

I can't remember any other time that the end of a run of performances made me feel so sad. Sad that this new standard of the Greek National Opera might as well stay unsurpassed for a very long time...


Divine Lise Lindstrom,
Martin Snell,
John Treleaven,
Ashley Holland,
John Horton Murray,
Rolf Haunstein,
Andreas Konrad,
Keel Watson,
Mina Polichronou,

and of course
maestro Auguin....

thank you for that little piece of your soul you left in Athens...

And for those who want to re-live the Grand Guignol shout..

Listen/download

Here or Here