Desert-Island Trysts: Hamburg’s new ‘Tannhäuser’ leaves Matthew Rye feeling dramatically abandoned

The difficulties directors encounter in trying to put Wagner’s Tannhäuser on stage are perhaps a reflection of the hoops that the composer himself went through in trying but not succeeding to produce the finished work to his satisfaction. So often some bits work, others don’t, which seemed to sum up the latest attempt from Kornél Mundruczó in Hamburg.