Tannhäuser and the Singers' War at Wartburg Castle

Having once fled from narrow conventions into the sensual demimonde of Mrs. Venus, Tannhäuser longs to return to the bosom of the family. But the returnee is no more the same as his beloved Elisabeth, and the community around them believes itself to be more open and devoted than it actually is. How can seemingly opposing worlds be united with each other or even in one person? How much personal freedom can partnerships and society withstand without losing their respective consensus? Where is the limit of our self-evident tolerance? Director Martin G. Berger takes the fascinating complexity of the characters and situations in this 180-year-old work as an opportunity to take a contemporary look at today's questions and turns Wagner's early work into a psychological, dazzling and gripping social panorama.