Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg: Overture

Program notes

About the Work

Tannhäuser, Wagner’s fifth opera, premiered in Dresden on October 19, 1845, with the composer conducting. The work draws on three medieval legends: the story of the minnesinger knight Tannhäuser, ensnared by the goddess Venus; the historical Wartburg singing contest; and the life of St. Elisabeth of Hungary.

The opera tells of a knight torn between sacred and profane love, between the pure Elisabeth and the sensual Venus, who has kept him captive in her underground realm. The famous overture was written last; Wagner completed the full score in April 1845. The Venusberg music cost him dearly: by his own account he was “very much troubled by excitability” while sketching it.

The overture functions as a complete tone poem, presenting the opera’s central conflict in purely musical terms. In broad terms, the opening Pilgrims’ Chorus represents the path of redemption through faith and repentance; the Venusberg music that follows evokes the seductive, forbidden pleasures that tempt Tannhäuser; the triumphant return of the Pilgrims’ theme at the close signals the victory of the sacred over the profane.

Wagner remained dissatisfied with Tannhäuser throughout his life. He revised it repeatedly, most substantially for the 1861 Paris production, and three weeks before his death Cosima noted in her diary that he said he still owed the world Tannhäuser.

What to listen for tonight:

• The Pilgrims’ Chorus: The overture opens with this solemn, chorale-like theme in the brass and woodwinds, evoking medieval pilgrims on their journey to Rome. It approaches, swells to a mighty outpouring, then recedes into the distance.

• The Venusberg music: As the pilgrims fade, seductive, chromatic music emerges: flickering strings and sinuous woodwinds. This is the realm of dangerous pleasure, of Tannhäuser’s captivity.

• Tannhäuser’s hymn: Rising out of the Venusberg music, a passionate melody represents the knight’s own voice: his rapturous praise of Venus that will later damn him.

• The triumphant return: After the Venusberg music reaches its frenzied climax, the Pilgrims’ Chorus returns in overwhelming glory, the full orchestra proclaiming the ultimate triumph of redemption.