Rating: 
Summary: gloomy but not for want of stars
Review: As for the visual aspect of this "Tannhäuser", it is dominated by gloom and a lack of colour to the point where it often looks like a black-and-white show.
The creatures living in the Venusberg look fleshy but hardly appetizing. "La chaire est triste" in this lovenest, and one wonders why Tannhauser went there in the first place. Wagner never suggested that his hero came from Mars, so why should he have felt attracted by that naked woman crawling over the scene and showing off her huge green (!)Bavarian buttocks?
Having fled this inferno (where boredom seems to be the greatest torment), our hero is supposed to find the colours and vigour of nature, but the real world is just as dark as the one he has left behind. There is no sign of hope in this opera (even the pilgrims come back dressed in black, just as they were before), so the only way out is death. All the more as Tannhauser's former friends are depicted as a bunch of unpleasant hypocrites, oddly dressed of course (I've got so used to these weird costumes that I hardly notice them anymore. Let's just be thankful they kept the scuba-diving equipment for next time).
The singing and acting is quite convincing on the other hand.
Meyer, Rooterink, and Weikl are excellent. Unlike other reviewers I do think Kollo sounds slightly past his prime. Some passages sound forced, and I prefer Windgassen anyway...
The biggest surprise for me wass Nadine Secunde. The prayer at the beginning of the third act moved me to tears. Here the bleak setting (not to mention the clothes) provided a potent contrast to the pure and deeply sensitive voice that brings light into this darkness.
The orchestra and chorus is very good. I love Mehta's interpretation of the prelude to the Third Act (the horns are magic)
All in all, I recommend this work in spite of its shortcomings. The overall quality is very good.
Rating: 
Summary: Naked ... on DVD
Review: As of this writing, Amazon hasn't integrated the reviews of the VHS and the DVD yet. I therefore refer you to that listing and my review there. As for the DVD, it's great. The recording is clear and powerful, and the singers sound fantastic. The six-channel audio makes quite a difference. I don't know why this presentation has been reviewed so unfavorably by others. I quite enjoy it even if it is more comical than dramatic in some places. My only disappointment is that the DVD didn't provide subtitles in the original language although it has them for English, French, Spanish, and Chinese. PS, there's a couple of naked heinies (female) also.
Rating:
Summary: ..... and "Whose Afraid of Richard Wagner?"
Review: Danke Schon Brian Large! Another triumph!The Wagner estate should be thankful for this controversial production of the Master's works - it provides just the correct amount of "vervremdung". There are currently three versions of Tannhauser available on DVD - THIS VERSION Is the most successful. I had to watch it twice at full blast on a big screen. It's visually reminiscent of Jean Cocteau's ORPHEUS, and isn't this the entire purpose of Opera on DVD [curently the most technically acceptable format] - for a music lover to access a work VISUALLY [and vocally] when the "live" product is unavailable? This version is a sublime marriage of Visual with Vocal. Kollo as Wagner/Tannhauser is trapped in limbo somewhere between Cosima Wagner/Venus [electrifying Waltraude Meier] and Elizabeth/sweet, forgotten, innocent love [virginal Nadine Secunde "aardtmaagt"]. It holds throughout - from the raw,... opening tableau [the ballet - perhaps only rivalled by the version seen in "Venus Rising"], through the chilly-lush Great Hall sequence, to the conservative conclusion. Leave the "Museum Piece" productions on the shelf - great for research, historic detail, etc. but not really for Wagner lovers in need of katharsis. I can't wait for Brian Large to "do" the Ring cycle. Wouldn't it be interesting to see Kolo, Meier, Secunde and Paul Groves in a version of "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" [would sound spectacular in German!] Previn did it with "Streetcar".
Rating: 
Summary: Tannhäuser comes in last.
Review: Don't put your money on this lame horse,... unless you have every other recording or video. Not one of Wagner's best stage works,- although musically quite revolutionary - Alden's pretentious, symbolic production reduces it to a travesty of what Wagner wanted and eventually achieved. Rene Kollo, as Heinrich Tannhäuser - a minstrel(?) lugs around a beaten suitcase with his songs, rather than his harp,is frankly past it and it's anyone's guess as to what they are all doing coming home from Rome,in Act 3. Only worth having for Waltraud Meier's 'Venus' - vocally and corporeally - wonderfully seductive, and Brian Large lets the camera stay with her as long as we can bear it. However all this is in Act1, and of course Venus never comes back. Certainly, all very challenging for the Munich public. Fortunately, Zubin Metha and the Nationaltheater Orchestra play Wagner superbly, and don't have to care what's happening on the stage behind them !
Rating:
Summary: Stars & Composer Transcend Concept
Review: Full of visually obvious but emotionally uncompelling symbols. Act I works, as it is a kind of fantasy to begin with. Act II is almost ruined, but (in the end) the torment of Tannhauser and Elizabeth still can move one. Act III succeeds very well, as the power of the singing and the music is finally allowed to transcend the silliness
Rating:
Summary: Stars & Composer Transcend Concept
Review: Full of visually obvious but emotionally uncompelling symbols. Act I works, as it is a kind of fantasy to begin with. Act II is almost ruined, but (in the end) the torment of Tannhauser and Elizabeth still can move one. Act III succeeds very well, as the power of the singing and the music is finally allowed to transcend the silliness
Rating: 
Summary: good singing, but very ugly staging
Review: I was soon put off before the overture comes to an end. The venusburg was like a madhouse, and the crowd in the great singing hall was like just running out from a madhouse... Call me closed-minded, but I am fed up with these stage directors who simply produce ridicules and distractions to the music. Kollo is admirabe except a bit restrained in the high range of his tone. Meier is a (fatally) seductive venus. Weikl, like a psychiatrist, is reliable as usual. Secunde is a superb Elisabeth. All in all, they deserve a much better staging. Those who still do not have any Tannhauser on vedio should wait for the 1978 Bayreuth production (currently in LD format).
Rating:
Summary: Interesting set, good singing
Review: I would probably recommend watching the met Tannhauser before you watch this one, because I think it's nice to see a traditional production before you see a modern one, however, I did find this production very interesting and worth repeated viewing.
Rene Kollo is a bit over-the-hill vocally here, but he still has some fine moments and his voice is simply more palatable then Richard Cassily's nasal tone in the Met dvd. Waltrud Meier's singing is flawless. Secunde, as Elisabeth, is very good, with a seemingly large-ish and beautiful tone, but I would not think of her as some sort of Kirsten Flagstad as one reviewer mentioned, mainly because her highest notes are not generally big and free which occasionally is a letdown, however there is alot to like about her singing here for sure. Bernd Weikl is good as always, with perhaps a small struggle for the highest notes. Jan Hendrik Rootering is very good.
Rating:
Summary: Ugly and beautiful.
Review: If you have never heard Wagner or this opera, skip this one. What you see is so ugly that it affects your perception of the music, as Wagner thought it would. And no, I am not so close minded as to be against an ugly presentation on principle; quiet the contrary. But I am against the inability of an artist of getting out of his mold. An artist has to be creative: he can not present ugly work just for the sake of being original. There is value in that respect in the presentation of the first act and the Venusberg as it was described. Why should hell be beautiful? But the celebration of singing in the second act, should have been a celebration if only to emphasise the hero's downfall. Instead, Alden feeds us more ugliness because he is not an artist. Like Patrice Chereau, he wants to send us a message. Our only luck in this case is that the message was not Marxist. Giving the music and singing a five and one for the eyes, it comes to a 3. If you have a good CD version and don't need to have every DVD version, don't buy it. Enjoy your CD.
Rating:
Summary: Music is good - everything else is ugly
Review: It's bizarre to watch this version. The music is there in its classical essence, but the costumes and scenery are set in a modern time period and are ugly and weird-looking. The overture doesn't play to its end, but is melded into the first act. Tannhauser is on stage during the overture, to which has been added a sort of "dream-ballet" as in Oklahoma, during he wanders around,lost, and is tempted by Venus and her nymphs, who are partly nude, depicting the decadent atmosphere of Venusberg. OK so far. But when he returns to the real (?) world, the castle in Thuringia is the same ugly setting, and the minstrel knights are a bunch of thugs in dingy gray. The pilgrim's chorus is done by a bunch of people in dark gray work clothes. Again, the music sounds great, but the odd setting is a distraction. Waltraud Meier makes a good Venus, and Jan Hendrik Rootering is a great Landgrave. Rene Kollo as Tannhauser sings well, but he looks too much like a bum to be a minstrel knight. All in all, the visual distractions make this rendition not very entertaining.
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