Heart of Stone: Michael Fuller ponders a striking take on ‘Tannhäuser’

Review of Tannhäuser, directed Arnarsson, conducted Sokhiev, Zurich, 2026.

November 2026, Volume 20, Number 3, 82–3.

Wagner’s Tannhäuser is as much a creature of the 19th century as of the 13th, the time of the historical Minnesänger. How, then, might his story best be represented in the 21st? In a programme note, Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson describes him as homeless, ‘constantly on the run, driven by restlessness and his own inner turmoil’. Since Tannhäuser prefers distraction to challenge, true pilgrimage is impossible for him, for it would involve a conscious search for inner transformation. The chilling consequences of this are spelled out in this staging, which depicts ‘a series of inner landscapes’ through which Tannhäuser journeys in a vain quest for escape.