As promised by moi "bon chien", I did indeed go to see Wagner's Tannhauser last night at the Geneva Opera. It was a rather radical interpretation with the scenes of Venus's love nest portrayed in a very realistic fashion.

The music was great, even if the set and choreography was a bit wacky. I think the director, Py, was trying to show some cold, facist side to the teutonic heritage of this opera with the pilgrims going to Rome looking more like a ghetto purge than Christain pilgrims. As my friend Gunther commented as we walked out of the opera house at the end of the performance, "you need to be a french intellectual to appreciate this...want to go to the pub and get a pint?" Thus, the central tension between the innate dichotomy of our true nature was fully exposed....