Wagner's Tannhäuser Tickets

Following his heroic performance as Siegfried in the Met’s 2019 Ring cycle, dashing Austrian tenor Andreas Schager returns as the knight Tannhäuser in Wagner’s ravishing opera of love, lust, and redemption. Soprano Elza van den Heever is the pure and virtuous princess Elisabeth, alongside mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as the tempting goddess of love, Venus. Maestro Donald Runnicles takes the podium for Otto Schenk’s classic production, which also features baritone Christian Gerhaher in his Met debut as Tannhäuser’s companion knight Wolfram and bass Georg Zeppenfeld as Landgraf Hermann.

World premiere: Court Opera, Dresden, 1845. Premiere of revised version: Opéra, Paris, 1861. History, myth, and invention come together in Tannhäuser to create a unique and powerful drama. The title character was a real 13th-century Minnesinger who inspired a legend that Wagner used as the basis for the opera. He notably added the character of Elisabeth, based on the historical Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, wife of the Landgrave of Thuringia. The opera’s score went through several revisions after the original performances, most importantly when Wagner added the Venusberg ballet for the 1861 French premiere.