‘I nearly cried,” said a fellow audience member as we filed out of Longborough Festival Opera’s superb production of Tannhäuser, thereby revealing astonishing resistance to an opera with emotional heft scarcely matched in the repertoire.

Tears sprang to the eyes, for me, during the first stately delivery of the glorious tune of the Pilgrims’ Chorus in the overture. This was presented with typical mastery here by the Longborough Festival Orchestra under Anthony Negus.

After two encounters with the melody, we arrive at the work’s stunning conclusion when again “the pulse of life” – a Wagner called it – throbs in string triplets over the soaring incantation from so many voices.

The most, in fact, heard before on the Longborough stage, where so much has been done in tribute to Wagner, including the bicentennial Ring three years ago, this country’s only celebratory professional performances of the operas.

Tannhäuser followed last year’s Tristan und Isolde as an exploration of the composer’s other works under the distinguished Wagnerian Negus, LFO’s music director since 2000. Its sound world is at times not so very different since the company used the 1861 Paris version incorporating some post-Tristan musical techniques.

Tenor John Treleaven, who shared the title role with Neal Cooper, was in superb voice on the opening night performance., showing us the spiritual torment of a man who swaps the love of the goddess Venus (Alison Kettlewell) for a return to his old world only to find his new liberties unsuited to it.

His old love Elizabeth (Erika Mädi Jones) and friend Wolfram von Eschenbach (Hrolfur Saemundsson) are among those horrified by his indecencies, sending him on a journey of redemption that ends in tragedy.

Directed by Alan Privett, the production featured spare sets by Kjell Torrisett expertly lit by Ben Ormerod.

Longborough’s festival continues until August 2, with productions of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Janacek’s Jenufa and Handel’s Alcina.

Box office: 01451, lfo.org.uk

Christopher Gray 4/5