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 Tannhäuser 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.