Short Summary
It is about nothing less than love.
This is what the Wartburg singing community asks for, and this is what Tannhäuser also seeks: he finds almost endless lust with the goddess of love Venus, and hopes to attain bliss with the "pure" Elisabeth. In his vacillation between satisfaction and renunciation, between guilt and protest, in being torn between fulfillment and exaltation, he corresponds entirely to the grammar of the Romantic age - and still speaks directly to us today.
Storyline
Tannhäuser has left the circle of singers that Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia has assembled at Wartburg Castle and has immersed himself in the dream realm of the Venusberg.
There he loses his sense of space and time. What he encounters causes his longing to return to the real world to become overpowering. Venus tries in vain to persuade him to stay with her. Although he sings of the wonders he has experienced with her and vows to go out into the world as her champion, he wants to leave her forever. He counters her warning that he will be disappointed by the "cold people" and return to her in repentance with the resolution to repent and find his salvation with Mary. He then collapses; the Venusberg sinks.
A boy sings of the goddess Holda and thus of the approaching spring. The boy's shepherd song and the sound of a shawm bring Tannhäuser to his senses. A crowd of penitents passes him by. The boy wishes them luck on their way to Rome. The pilgrims lament the burden of their sins and pray to the Virgin Mary in song. Tannhäuser joins in their self-accusation and hopes for God's mercy. The sound of horns announces the company of the Landgrave, who is out hunting with the singers.
The knights recognize Tannhäuser. They tell him that he has left them in a quarrel. Tannhäuser declares the quarrel over, but does not want to return to their circle. His friend Wolfram von Eschenbach tells him, prompted by Hermann, that Elisabeth, the Landgrave's niece, has fallen into a melancholy mood since his departure - apparently out of disappointed love. Tannhäuser then decides to join the knights in order to see Elisabeth again.
Elisabeth returns for the first time to the festive place where she learned to love Tannhäuser and his songs.
Her joy at the imminent reunion is mixed with the memory of what Tannhäuser's sudden departure had triggered in her. When Wolfram leads Tannhäuser to her, Elisabeth speaks of the hurt he has caused her by his mysterious disappearance. Tannhäuser evades her question as to where he has been; instead, he praises the "God of love", to whom he attributes the miracle of his return. Both feel revived, while Wolfram, who secretly loves Elisabeth, sees all hope fading for himself. Hermann asks his niece Elisabeth to open her heart to him. With just a glance, she lets him know that she loves Tannhäuser.
He declares her the princess of the forthcoming feast, to which he has invited the nobles of his land on the occasion of Tannhäuser's return. After the guests have arrived, the singers whom the Landgrave has called to compete also appear. In their songs, they are to fathom the essence of love; the winner may choose the prize he is to receive from Elisabeth's hand. Wolfram praises love as a spiritual value that can only be lived up to through renunciation. Walther von der Vogelweide and Biterolf also sing of this ideal, to which they are prepared to sacrifice their lives. Tannhäuser counters that love can only work its wonders through sensual pleasure.
As the argument comes to a head, he breaks out into a song of praise to Venus and confesses that he has been to Venusberg. The self-appointed female judges threaten him with indignation; Elisabeth then stands in front of him with a bow. She publicly declares how deeply Tannhäuser's betrayal of her has affected her. Nevertheless, she demands that he be given the opportunity to repent. The Landgrave banishes Tannhäuser and asks him to go to Rome with the pilgrims and ask the Pope to forgive his sins. Tannhäuser has realized what he has done to Elisabeth. When distant singing announces the departure of the younger pilgrims, who are following the procession of the older pilgrims, he wants to join them.
Wolfram meets Elisabeth, who is waiting for Tannhäuser to return.
It is now fall: The elderly pilgrims return from Rome and sing of the grace that has been bestowed upon them; but Tannhäuser does not come back. Elisabeth begs Our Lady to let her die so that she can ask for mercy for Tannhäuser in heaven. When Wolfram wants to accompany her, she rejects him. He asks the evening star to greet Elisabeth on her last journey. Tannhäuser appears broken.
He tells Wolfram about his futile pilgrimage: Although he has imposed the harshest penance on himself, the Pope has refused him absolution and cursed him for his stay in the Venusberg. Now he wants to turn to Venus again, who forgives him. But Wolfram reminds Tannhäuser of Elisabeth, who sacrificed herself for him. Tannhäuser also collapses dead on her corpse, while the Wartburg society praises the miracle of his redemption, which the younger pilgrims proclaim.
After Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman,Tannhäuser represents the next major step in Richard Wagner's development. What's more, much already points to later works: "The pilgrimage and Rome music hints at his last opera, Parsifal, as far as the religious aspect is concerned. And the Venus music - even in the first, Dresden version - refers to Tristan und Isolde," explains premiere conductor Philippe Jordan.
Following new productions of Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Lohengrin in the past seasons, Tannhäuser is now on the Vienna State Opera's premiere schedule. In 1857, the Viennese were first introduced to a complete opera by Wagner with this work - not at the Court Opera, but in the large Thalia Theater, which seated 4,000 people. Just two years later, Tannhäuser was also performed at Vienna's leading opera house and even the dreaded critics' pope Eduard Hanslick was impressed by the work. This time, a mixture of the earlier Dresden version and the later Paris version of the opera will be performed at the Haus am Ring.
