Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg

Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg, an opera (Romantische Oper) in three acts by R. Wagner, the text of which (in rhyming verse) he wrote in 1842-3. The musical composition was completed in 1845. It was first performed in Dresden on 19 October 1845. Wagner combines a legend of Tannhäuser contained in a folk-song with the story of the Wartburgkrieg.

Tannhäuser is shown abandoned to sensual enjoyment in the grotto of Venus (see Venusberg). He desires to return to normal life, and, after leaving Venus, encounters Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia, with minstrels, including Wolfram von Eschenbach. The second act is occupied by the contest among the singers, in which the Landgrave's daughter Elisabeth is to reward the victor. Wolfram praises spiritual love, but Tannhäuser allows himself to be carried away in a passionate paean in praise of ‘Frau Venus’, and the act ends with his disgrace and banishment. Elisabeth, who has loved Tannhäuser, dies. Tannhäuser returns from a vain pilgrimage to Rome with his sins still upon his head. Elisabeth's death not only saves him from a return to the grotto of Venus but brings him absolution, for messengers arrive from Rome with news of a miracle (the pilgrim's staff has put out leaves) proving that Tannhäuser's sins are forgiven him.

Apart from the overture, the Pilgrims' Chorus, and Tannhäuser's song in praise of love, the most famous numbers are Elisabeth's ‘Dich, teure Halle, grüße ich wieder’ (Act II) and Wolfram's ‘O du, mein holder Abendstern’ (Act III). Wagner revised the opera for a performance in Paris in 1861 and preferred this version (Pariser Fassung). The original form of the opera (Dresdener Fassung) is, however, still performed.