Instead, what we see are noble knights and ladies in elegant cocktail attire more attuned to the sophistication of Noel Coward or the ball from “My Fair Lady.” For them, love is chaste, “No sex please!” If Louisa Muller’s direction and Gottfried Pilz’s sets and costumes represented the opera’s original 13th-century setting, the stage would be filled with sword-bearing Germanic knights who take time out now and then to compete in signing contests.

Just the chance to hear a live 147-piece (brass resounding) orchestra, full men’s and women’s chorus, and a cast of dynamic vocalists, all under the direction of LA Opera’s music director and Wagnerian master, James Conlon, is transformative - especially after all we’ve been through for the last year and a half.

That is certainly the experience offered by Los Angeles Opera’s production of Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser,” which opened Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In holistic medicine there is a therapy called a “Sound Bath” that heals by immersing the individual in an all-consuming, meditative world of music and song.

La opera tannhauser