Artist gives birth days after Tannhäuser premiere in Zurich

Erna Mist and director Þorleifur Örn Arnarson welcomed a son days after the premiere of Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser in Zurich, mbl.is reports. The couple also have a one-year-old daughter.

Arnarson directed the production, while Erna Mist created its set design. The opera premiered in June, and Germany’s oldest opera magazine later named the set design of the year in Zurich.

Erna Mist, who is a painter rather than a set designer, created the production’s world in 36 paintings after another set designer became unavailable. The construction department in Switzerland then used the paintings to build the stage environment.

“I expected them to come to me and say that it was impossible, but that never happened,” she said. One painting showed men falling like rain, a scene that was realised with 30 people flying through the air. Another depicted a huge cage made of gold coins, which became a structure seven or eight metres high on stage.

Erna Mist said she listened to the opera repeatedly while preparing the designs. She and Arnarson discussed it every day, over coffee, dinner and while shopping. The couple moved to Zurich in April and returned home shortly after the premiere.

Their son was due around the time of the premiere on June 22, but he was born several days later. Erna Mist attended the premiere and appeared on stage during the curtain call while heavily pregnant.

A heatwave was affecting the city, with temperatures remaining above 27 degrees Celsius at night. After consulting their midwife, the couple decided to return to Iceland the day after the premiere. They flew home on June 23, and their son was born on June 27.

Erna Mist described the premiere as extraordinary, saying the production team’s different artistic visions had amplified one another. The show received strong reviews in Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung and Switzerland’s Tages-Anzeiger, which called it a musical and staging triumph.

Germany’s oldest opera magazine named the production, its conductor and its set design of the year. A longer interview with Erna Mist appears in Morgunbladid’s Sunday edition.