Tannhäuser (Jan. 9, 1954)

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: Richard Wagner

Szell; Vinay, Harshaw, Varnay, London, Hines

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 53 min.

In Wagner’s groundbreaking early masterpiece, the splendid Ramón Vinay sings Tannhäuser, the man and artist torn between love of the sensual and the innocent kind, embodied by the sensational Astrid Varnay as Venus and the radiant Margaret Harshaw as the saintly Elisabeth. George Szell leads a superb cast that also includes George London’s Wolfram and Jerome Hines’s Landgrave. The 23-year-old Roberta Peters delivers an unexpected star turn as the Shepherd Boy.