By Shirley Apthorp [Financial Times, 2 December 2008]
Larger-than-life gargoyles leer at the audience from the gauze, bat-winged demons descend from the heavens and painted flames lick the naked limbs of lusting sinners. Kirsten Harms’s new *Tannh‰user* for Deutsche Oper borrows liberally from images of medieval Christianity (design: Bernd Damovsky). Her knights wear shining armour, Elisabeth sports virginal white, the Wartburg’s inhabitants are like cartoon illustrations of a whimsical fairytale court.