Tannhäuser Tickets

Tannhäuser Tickets: Wagner’s Epic Opera in NYC

Sacred and earthly love and lust combine in Wagner’s electric Tannhäuser, performed at the Metropolitan Opera House this year. The Ring Cycle composer’s mid-career work is a ravishing tale of love and redemption populated by goddesses, mortals, quests, and soaring melodies.

What is the story of the Tannhäuser opera?

After spending a year in the magical underground domain of Venus, Goddess of Love, Tannhäuser wishes to return to the human world. Venus, however, has other ideas for him. When his abandoned love, Elisabeth, pleads for his soul to be redeemed, what will be asked of them in return?

Entwining history, myth and invention, Tannhäuser is a powerful drama inspired by a real 13th-century Minnesinger, who in turn inspired legends that Wagner used as the basis for his work.

Who composed the opera Tannhäuser?

Tannhäuser is one of German composer Richard Wagner’s operatic works. Wagner’s operas are steeped in Germanic and Norse mythological influences, where gods and monsters collide with mortal warriors and the follies of mankind. His best-known pieces form the Ring Cycle: Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods).

Tannhäuser is one of Wagner’s mid-career compositions, and together with Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) and Lohengrin are known as his “romantic operas”, replete with powerful emotions.

Some of the best-known music in Tannhäuser includes Hymn to the Evening Star, the Pilgrim’s Chorus and “Dich, teure Halle”.

The Cast of Tannhäuser at the Met Opera

Austrian tenor Andreas Schager returns to the Met as the knight Tannhäuser, following his towering performance as Siegfried in 2019’s Ring Cycle production. He is joined in the cast by soprano Elza van den Heever as virtuous princess Elisabeth; mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as Venus; baritone Christian Gerhaher as Tannhäuser’s companion knight Wolfram and bass Georg Zeppenfeld as Landgraf Hermann.

The company and orchestra are conducted by Donald Runnicles in Otto Schenk’s classic production, which draws out the themes of love, lust and redemption for a stunning night of opera.

Tickets for Tannhäuser at the Met Opera Available Now

Operas do not get more epic than Wagner’s rich tapestries of European legend; join his disillusioned, restless knight on his quest for redemption and true love in Tannhäuser, performed by a world-class company in the heart of New York this year.