Wagner’s Tannhäuser

Director: Otto Schenk

Conductor: James Levine

Cast: Cast: Johan Botha (Tannhäuser), Eva-Maria Westbroek (Elisabeth), Michelle DeYoung (Venus), Peter Mattei (Wolfram), Günther Groissböck (Landgraf Hermann)

James Levine conducts Wagner’s early masterpiece in its first return to the Met stage in more than a decade. Today’s leading Wagnerian tenor Johan Botha takes on the daunting title role, opposite soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as Elisabeth, adding another Wagner heroine to her Met repertoire after her acclaimed Sieglinde in the Ring a few seasons ago. On the heels of his recent triumph in Parsifal, baritone Peter Mattei sings Wolfram, and mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung is the love goddess, Venus.