In the early 1840s, during the revolutionary upsurge in Germany, RICHARD WAGNER started working on Tannhäuser. All but one (Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (The Nuremberg Master Singers)) of his musical dramas are based on legendary plots. The Tannhäuser s plot is thus a compilation based on three medieval legends in which the singer-protagonists are real historical figures: the first legend is about the minnesinger knight Tannhäuser, who is under the influence of the goddess Venus and her sensual delights; the second legend is about the Wartburg singing contest, where the hero turns out to be another minnesinger, Heinrich von Ofterdingen; and the third legend is about St. Elizabeth, whose fate the composer intertwines with that of Tannhäuser. Wagner composed the opera from July 1843 to 13 April 1845. It was premiered on October 19th, 1845 in Dresden. After that he extended one of the scenes for the purposes of the Paris staging in 1861.
Immediately after completing the opera in 1845, Wagner came up with the idea of creating a comic version of it, which he pursued at the Nuremberg Master Singers for 22 years, completing it in 1867.
The real clash in Tannhäuser is the eternal confrontation in the human heart between the spiritual and the secular, the sacred and the sensual, responsibility and pleasure, the sacred and the profane, the heavenly and the earthly. The conflict is personified in two female characters, Venus and Elisabeth, fighting over Tannhäuser. The two center female characters are accompanied by retinues: nymphs and Bacchantes around Venus, pilgrims and Christian knights around Elisabeth. The protagonist, discontent with his orgiastic sojourn in the chambers of Venus, seeks and finds true love, chastity, purity, devotion and understanding. The setting is the Thuringian countryside of 13th century and the story goes as follows: tired of Venus’ bacchanalia, Tannhäuser leaves her to seek “pure” love and finds it in the person of Elisabeth. During a singing contest with other knights, Tannhäuser sings the hymn of Venus, to the shock of the knights. Elisabeth intervenes in Tannhäuser’s defense, moved by this fact, the Landgrave spares his life. Tannhäuser decides to once again go on pilgrimage to Rome and receive forgiveness from the Pope. But the latter is adamant that “his staff would rather blossom than Tannhäuser receive absolution”. Elisabeth dies of grief while waiting for her beloved. Tannhäuser returns during the funeral procession and, broken by the circumstances, falls dead beside her. Redemption is in sight, and the Pope’s sceptre blossoms.
The contrast between the two worlds is conveyed through the complex structure of the overture, consisting of a three-stage form with a complete sonata form in the central movement. The final chorale movements symbolise the spiritual beginning and Elisabeth. The two main themes in the first section are the chorus of the Pilgrims and Tannhäuser’s ‘theme of penitence’. After the central movement with the Bacchanalia of Venus, the third movement restores the choir of the pilgrims, but in a heroic modus, ending with an apotheosis hymn.
Franz Liszt was particularly appreciative of Wagner’s opera: he wrote an article about Tannhäuser, called the overture “a symphonic poem on themes from the opera” and made a piano transcription of it.
After the premiere in Dresden, attitudes to the opera were controversial. On the one hand, Eduard Hanslick, a legislator of musical tastes in the mid-nineteenth century and an opponent of Wagner’s music, surprisingly changed his mind: ‘I am firmly convinced that this is the best that has been achieved in the genre of “grand opera” in the last 20 years… Richard Wagner is, without doubt, the greatest dramatic talent among modern composers’.
On the other hand, Wagner stood precisely on the position that the work was a failure. At the end of his life he called Tannhäuser “my weakest opera”.
In 1861, the Grand Opera of Paris agreed to give the French premiere of Tannhäuser. Wagner, who had rather negative memories of his period of scarcity and old hostility in Paris (1839-1842), only confirmed them after the premiere there. For the Paris production the composer added two pantomimes, without which operatic performances were unthinkable for the young representatives of the Jockey Club. They practically attended the Grand Opera only because of the young ballerinas. As a result of intrigue and impropriety on the part of the club members, Wagner withdrew subsequent performances.