Wagner’s Tannhäuser returns to the Met on November 30

Soprano Elza van den Heever and tenor Andreas Schager make their Met role debuts as Elisabeth and Tannhäuser

Baritone Christian Gerhaher makes his company debut in the role of Wolfram

New York, NY (November 27, 2023)—Wagner’s Tannhäuser returns to the Met stage on November 30 for eight performances, with notable Met role debuts for three principal cast members:Austrian tenor Andreas Schager in the title role, following his performances as Siegfried in the Met’s 2019 Ring cycle; South African soprano Elza van den Heever as Elisabeth, following her critically acclaimed performance as Senta in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer last season; and Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova, who appeared as Neris in last year’s Met premiere of Cherubini’s Medea, as Venus. The production also features German baritone Christian Gerhaher, lauded as “one of the finest Lieder singers of his generation” (The Guardian), in his company debut as Tannhäuser’s companion knight Wolfram. Singing the role of Landgraf Hermann is German bass Georg Zeppenfeld, whose last Met performance was in 2021 as Pogner in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Maestro Donald Runnicles conducts.

Returning to the Met stage for the first time since 2015, director Otto Schenk’s classic stagingwas first performed on December 22, 1977.  In a review of the production’s premiere,The New York Timeshailed it as “Imaginatively staged, it is a production Wagner might recognize.” The creative team includes set designer Günther Schneider-Siemssen, costume designer Patricia Zipprodt, lighting designer Gil Wechsler, and choreographer Norbert Vesak.

Tannhäuser Broadcasts on Radio and Online

The November 30, December 12, and December 23 performances of Tannhäuser will be broadcast live on the SiriusXM app. The December 23 performance will also be broadcast over The Robert K. Johnson Foundation–Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. Audio from the November 30 and December 12 performances will also be streamed live on the Met’s website, metopera.org.

For More Information

For further details on Tannhäuser, including casting by date, please click here.