Met Opera: Tannhäuser

The Metropolitan Opera and The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Tuesday, December 19, 2023 @ 7:00pm – 11:30pm (EST)

Metropolitan Opera House, New York, NY, United States

$37-$470

Elza van den Heever, soprano (Elisabeth)
Ekaterina Gubanova, mezzo-soprano (Venus)
Andreas Schager, tenor (Tannhäuser)
Christian Gerhaher, baritone (Wolfram)
Georg Zeppenfeld, bass (Landgraf Hermann)
Donald Runnicles, conductor

Richard Wagner — Tannhäuser, WWV 70

Following his heroic performance as Siegfried in the Met's 2019 Ring cycle, dashing Austrian tenor Andreas Schager returns as the knight Tannhäuser in Wagner's ravishing opera of love, lust, and redemption. Soprano Elza van den Heever is the pure and virtuous princess Elisabeth, alongside mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as the tempting goddess of love, Venus. Maestro Donald Runnicles takes the podium for Otto Schenk's classic production, which also features baritone Christian Gerhaher in his Met debut as Tannhäuser's companion knight Wolfram and bass Georg Zeppenfeld as Landgraf Hermann.

Sung in German. Met Titles in English, German, and Spanish.

Estimated run time: 4 hours, 20 min.

Runs Nov. 30-Dec. 23.

About Ekaterina Gubanova, mezzo-soprano (Venus)

Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, and was a Royal Opera Young Artist from 2002 to 2004. Her international career took off in 2005 with her success as Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at Opéra National de Paris. Since then she has sung the German and Italian repertoire worldwide with renowned conductors including Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Kirill Petrenko, Philippe Jordan, Semyon Bychkov, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, to name a few. In 2021 and 2022, she had a great success as Venus in Wagner's Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival. In 2023, she returned to The Metropolitan Opera as Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma, made her role debut as Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal at Vienna Staatsoper, and returned to the Bayreuth Festival as Venus in Tannhäuser. Ekaterina Gubanova is also sought-after for concert appearances, making her New York Philharmonic debut in Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection" in June 2024, led by Music Director Jaap van Zweden.

https://www.mariinsky.ru/en/company/opera_guest/gubanova_ek2/