Tannhäuser (; full title , "Tannhäuser and the Minnesängers' Contest at Wartburg") is an 1845 opera in three acts, with music and text by Richard Wagner (WWV 70 in the catalogue of the composer's works). It is based on two German legends: Tannhäuser, the mythologized medieval German Minnesänger and poet, and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, as well as redemption through love, a theme running through most of Wagner's work.
The opera remains a staple of major opera house repertoire in the 21st century.
Composition history
Sources
The libretto of Tannhäuser combines mythological elements characteristic of German Romantische Oper (Romantic opera) and the medieval setting typical of many French Grand Operas. Wagner brings these two together by constructing a plot involving the 14th-century Minnesänger and the myth of Venus and her subterranean realm of Venusberg. Both the historical and the mythological are united in Tannhäuser's personality; although he is a historical poet-composer, little is known about him besides the myths surrounding him.
Wagner wove a variety of sources into the opera narrative. According to his autobiography, he was inspired by finding the story in "a Volksbuch (popular book) about the Venusberg", which he said "fell into his hands", although he admits knowing of the story from the Phantasus of Ludwig Tieck and E. T. A. Hoffmann's story, Der Kampf der Sänger (The Singers' Contest). Tieck's tale, which names the hero "Tannenhäuser", tells of the minnesinger-knight's amorous adventures in the Venusberg, his travels to Rome as a Pilgrim, and his repudiation by the pope. To this Wagner added material from Hoffmann's story, from Serapions-Brüder (1819), describing a song contest at the Wartburg castle, a castle which featured prominently in Thuringian history. Heinrich Heine had provided Wagner with the inspiration for Der fliegende Holländer and Wagner again drew on Heine for Tannhäuser. In Heine's sardonic essay "Elementargeister" (Elemental spirits), there appears a poem about Tannhäuser and the lure of the grotto of Venus, published in 1837 in the third volume of Der Salon. Other possible sources include Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's play Der Sängerkrieg auf der Wartburg and Eichendorff's Das Marmorbild (The Marble Statue, 1818).
The legend of Tannhäuser, the amorous crusading Franconian knight, and that of the song contest on the Wartburg (which did not involve Tannhäuser, but the semi-mythical minnesinger Heinrich von Ofterdingen), came from quite separate traditions. Ludwig Bechstein wove together the two legends in the first volume of his collection of Thuringian legends, Der Sagenschatz und die Sagenkreise des Thüringerlandes (A treasury of the tales of Thuringian legends and legend cycles, 1835), which was probably the Volksbuch to which Wagner refers in his autobiography. Wagner also knew of the work of another contemporary, Christian Theodor Ludwig Lucas, whose Über den Krieg von Wartburg of 1838 also conflated the two legends. This confusion (which explains why Tannhäuser is referred to as 'Heinrich' in the opera) does not fit with the historical timeline of the events in the opera, since the Singers' Contest involving von Ofterdingen is said to have taken place around 1207, while Tannhäuser's poetry appeared much later (1245–1265). The sources used by Wagner, therefore, reflected a nineteenth-century romantic view of the medieval period, with concerns about artistic freedom and the constraints of organised religion typical of the period of Romanticism.
During Wagner's first stay in Paris (1839–1842), he read a paper by Ludwig Lucas on the Sängerkrieg which sparked his imagination, and encouraged him to return to Germany, which he reached on 7 April 1842. Having crossed the Rhine, the Wagners drove towards Thuringia, and saw the early rays of sun striking the Wartburg; Wagner immediately began to sketch the scenery that would become the stage sets. Wagner wrote the prose draft of Tannhäuser between June and July 1842 and the libretto in April 1843.
Composition Wagner began composing the music during a vacation in Teplitz in the summer of 1843 and completed the full score on 13 April 1845; the opera's famous overture, often played separately as a concert piece, was written last. While composing the music for the Venusberg grotto, Wagner grew so impassioned that he made himself ill; in his autobiography, he wrote, "With much pain and toil I sketched the first outlines of my music for the Venusberg.... Meanwhile, I was very much troubled by excitability and rushes of blood to the brain. I imagined I was ill and lay for whole days in bed...." The instrumentation also shows signs of borrowing from French operatic style. The score includes parts for on-stage brass; however, Wagner uses 12 German Waldhorns rather than French brass instruments. Wagner also makes use of the harp, another commonplace of French opera. Wagner made a number of revisions to the opera throughout his life and was still dissatisfied with its format when he died. The most significant revision was made for the opera's première in Paris in 1861.
Performance history
Dresden version (1845) The first performance was given in the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden on 19 October 1845. The composer Ferdinand Hiller, at that time a friend of Wagner, assisted in the musical preparations for the production. The part of Elisabeth was sung by Wagner's niece, Johanna Wagner. Wagner had intended to premiere the opera on 13 October, Johanna's 19th birthday, but she was ill, so it was postponed by six days. Venus was sung by Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, and the title role of Tannhäuser by Josef Tichatschek. The performance was conducted by the composer. Tannhäuser was not the success that Rienzi had been, and Wagner almost immediately set to modifying the ending, adjusting the score through 1846 and 1847. For the first Dresden revival (1847) he clarified the representation of Venus's temptation of Tannhäuser in the final act and added vocal presentation of the pilgrim's chorus in this act (where it had previously been represented by orchestra alone). This version of the opera, as revised for publication in 1860, is generally known as the "Dresden" version. After Franz Liszt produced the opera at Weimar Court Theatre in 1849, there were further performances between 1852 and 1856 in (amongst other locations) Schwerin, Kassel, Poznań, Wiesbaden, Hanover, Munich, and Berlin.
The Dresden version was used for initial productions outside Germany, notably at Riga on 18 January 1853; at Tallinn on 10 January 1854; at Prague on 25 November 1854 at Theatre of the Estates; at New York City on 4 April 1859 at the Stadt Theatre; and in London on 6 May 1876 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (when it was sung in Italian).
Paris version (1861) Wagner substantially amended the opera for a special 1861 performance by the Paris Opéra. This had been requested by Emperor Napoleon III at the suggestion of Princess Pauline von Metternich, wife of the Austrian ambassador to France. This revision forms the basis of what is now known as the "Paris version" of Tannhäuser. The venue meant that the composer had to insert a ballet into the score, according to the traditions of the house. Wagner agreed to this condition since he believed that a success at the Opéra represented his most significant opportunity to re-establish himself following his exile from Germany. However, rather than put the ballet in its traditional place in act 2, he chose to place it in act 1, in the form of a bacchanale, where it could make dramatic sense by representing the sensual world of Venus's realm. There were further extensive changes. The text was translated into French (by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter and others). Venus, a role that in the Dresden version was considered a soprano, was rewritten as for mezzo-soprano. Venus' aria "Geliebter, komm!" was transposed down by a semitone, and its latter part was completely rewritten. A solo for Walther was removed from act 2. Extra lines for Venus following Tannhäuser's "Hymn to Love" were added. The orchestral introduction to act 3 was shortened. The end of the opera was reworked to include Venus on stage, where before the audience only heard the Venus motif, in an attempt to clarify the action.
Tannhäusers first performance in Paris was given on 13 March 1861 at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra. The composer had been closely involved in its preparation and there had been 164 rehearsals. The costumes were designed by Alfred Albert, the sets by Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry (act 1, scene 1), Édouard Desplechin (act 1, scene 2 and act 3), and Joseph Nolau and Auguste Alfred Rubé (act 2).
At the first performance the opera was initially well-received, with disturbances including whistling and catcalls beginning to appear in act 2 and becoming prominent by the end of the third act. For the second performance much of the new ballet music was removed, together with some actions that had specifically provoked mockery, such as the piping of the shepherd in act 1. At this performance however the audience disturbances were increased. This was partly due to members of the wealthy and aristocratic Jockey Club, who objected to the ballet coming in act 1, since this meant they would have to be present from the beginning of the performance (disrupting their dining schedule). It was alleged that they distributed whistles to the audience. A further incentive to disruption was the unpopularity of Princess von Metternich and of her native country of Austria. At the third performance on 24 March (which Wagner did not attend) uproar caused several interruptions of up to fifteen minutes at a time. As a consequence, Wagner withdrew the opera after the third performance. This marked the end to Wagner's hopes of establishing himself in Paris.
The "Paris" version's Italian premiere, its first outside France, was 7 November 1872 at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. The American and British premieres of this version were respectively in New York at the Metropolitan Opera on 30 January 1889, and at London's Royal Opera House on 15 July 1895."Tannhäuser: Performance History" in Opera Glass website (Stanford University), accessed 3 November 2015
Vienna version (1875) A few further changes to Tannhäuser were made for an 1875 performance of the opera in Vienna, the last production carried out under Wagner's own supervision. These included the opera being sung in German (rather than in French, as in Paris) and linking the end of the overture to the start of the opera proper. The 1875 Vienna version is that normally used in modern productions of the "Paris" version, often with the reinstatement of Walther's act 2 solo. Wagner remained dissatisfied with the opera. Cosima Wagner noted in her diary on 23 January 1883 (three weeks before he died) "He says he still owes the world Tannhäuser."
Roles Although the libretto and the score always use the single name Tannhäuser in stage directions involving the title character or in indicating which passages are sung by him, that name never appears in the libretto. Rather, each character who addresses Tannhäuser by name uses his given name, Heinrich (Heinrich von Ofterdingen).
The distinct character Heinrich der Schreiber sings many melodies distinct from all other named characters, and occasionally unique lyrics. However, in the libretto he finds individual mention only in the list of characters, with the ensemble numbers that include him being labelled for the Ritter (i.e., "knights", referring to the Minnesinger, who all share knightly rank). The score in the Schirmer edition labels his melody line simply "Schreiber".