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Knights at the Opera, Part 3 - Wagnerian Knights - Page 2

© Iris Bass

The 1845 Tannhäuser, set in 13th-century Thuringia, is based in part upon legends concerning a medieval knight from Franconia, and also upon a medieval poem, Der Sangerkrieg, concerning a song contest of troubadours. These storylines filtered down to Wagner through the writings of a number of 19th-century literary figures including Heine and E.T.A. Hoffmann. The opera's theme essentially examines the requirement that a knight be chaste.

As the curtain rises, Tannhäuser has temporarily forgotten his vows of purity and is seduced by the goddess, Venus, who represents heathen -- in the sense of Godless -- forces. Coming to his senses and calling upon the Virgin Mary, he causes the mythical vision to disappear and finds himself outdoors, where he encounters religious pilgrims bound for Rome. Instead of joining them, however, he is convinced by a group of old friends, the Landgrave of Thuringia and his minstrels come that way in a hunting party, to return with them to court, where he is their most popular troubadour.

Via song, he thus competes in Act II for the hand of Elisabeth, niece of the Landgrave. Other entrants include Wolfram, who compares love to a fountain, and Walther, who echoes this theme; Tannhäuser then shocks the court when he bursts into the fourth verse of his Act I "Hymn to Venus" -- containing lyrics about carnal love. Despite Elisabeth's supportive intervention, he is immediately ordered to travel to Rome to ask forgiveness from the Pope for his blasphemy, and indeed does so, as he reports when he reappears in Act III. According to the dishonored knight, the Pope didn't take such matters lightly and has refused to grant him a pardon unless a miracle occurs: his papal staff must burst into bloom. The Act ends with a Faust-like struggle for Tannhäuser's soul, as the Pope's condemnation creates in him a new desire for the delights of Venusberg while the angel-like Elisabeth bursts into fervent prayer...and succeeds, at the cost of her own life. The opera ends with the knight's collapse into death even as the pilgrims return from Rome: they bear the Pope's staff, which has indeed bloomed. Because of Elisabeth's unfaltering faith and love, Tannhäuser's soul has been saved...despite his dabblings with pagan-style lust.

It is important to note that Wagner made significant changes to his score for the 1861 "Paris" version of this opera, particularly with regard to creating more voluptuous musical imagery for Venus, and adding extra pagan characters to the Act I bacchanal. It is an interesting footnote, too, that Franz Liszt's oratorio Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth, which was staged in 1881, has the Landgrave himself, along with his knights, going off to the Crusades, and contains an actual melody used in the Crusades.

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