History Theatre / Tannhaeuser

* UnfortunateName:
** Wagner's original name for his opera was ''Der Venusberg'', but he was convinced to change it when the [[DoubleEntendre unfortunate implications]] of translating it into French were pointed out to him -- since « ''La Monte de Vénus'' » ("The Mountain of Venus") is one letter off from « ''mont de Vénus'' » ("mound of Venus") which refers to the pubic mound.
** "Wartburg" in question is the castle and not TheAllegedCar [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_(car) named after it]].

%%* BettyAndVeronica: Elisabeth and Venus.

* TheMaleIngenueMustBeATenor: Subverted, perhaps, in that the more sensual Heinrich is a tenor, the more innocent Wolfram a baritone.

%%* TenorBoy: Heinrich and Walther.

For a summary of the plot, see our [[Synopsis.{{Tannhaeuser}} synopsis page.]]

''Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg'' (or, in English, "Tannhäuser and the Song-Contest at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_castle Wartburg Castle]]"), more commonly know as ''Tannhäuser'', is a "romantic opera in three acts" by Music/RichardWagner. The opera first premiered in Dresden in 1845, but a revised and extended version (translated into French!) was prepared by the composer for the Paris ''Opéra'' in 1861, and it is this later version that is more commonly performed today (in a suitably Teutonic retranslation by the composer).

Wagner based the plot of his opera on a conflation of two originally unconnected legends. The first tells of a minnesinger (or "minstrel of love") and knight, called ''the'' Tannhäuser (literally, "man from the fir-tree-home"), who descended into a subterranean kingdom under a mountain (the so-called "Mountain of Venus" or ''Venusberg'', identified by Wagner with the real [[http://www.grosserhoerselberg.de/garbage/31/318277/1222017.jpg Hörselberg]] near the town of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenach Eisenach]]) and won the favors of the goddess of love (called alternately Venus or Holda, her Latin or German names, by Wagner); after a period of some years, the knight repented and fled the Venusberg to seek penance from [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope Urban IV]]; the pope rejects his penitence, telling him that sooner will his staff grow new leaves than forgiveness be possible for such as he, and Tannhäuser, despairing, returns to Venus -- three days later the staff does indeed burst into leaf, but the pope's messengers cannot find the knight. The second tells of the "War of Song" conducted by the legendary minnesinger Heinrich von Ofterdingen (and his sorcerous companion Clinschor (=Klingsor (!)) of Hungary) against the most famous minstrels of mediæval Germany at the court of ''Landgraf'' (or "territorial count") Hermann von [[TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Thüringen]]; in the course of which Clinschor prophecies the birth of Elizabeth of Hungary, later to be the wife of the Landgrave's son and a canonized saint. Wagner radically reshaped these legends, identifying the [[HistoricalDomainCharacter historical]] (though pseudonymous) Tannhäuser with the (probably) mythical Ofterdingen, and transporting the former from his own time (''fl. c''. 1250 A.D.) to that of Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia, some 50 years before, and transforming the Landgrave's daughter-in-law into his niece and Tannhäuser's true love

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Quite a few: ''der Tannhäuser'' (''c''. 1205 - ''c''. 1270) himself (though, as far we know, he was not named Heinrich -- he ''may'' have been named Liutpolt), a mid-thirteenth century minnesinger, some of whose songs have survived; Herman, Landgrave of [[TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Thuringia]] (''c''. 1160 - 1217); Wolfram von Eschenbach (''c.'' 1170 - ''c.'' 1220), possibly the greatest of mediæval Germany's narrative poets (whose ''Parzival'' inspired Wagner's ''Parsifal''); Walther von der Vogelweide (''c''. 1175-''c.'' 1230), certainly mediæval Germany's greatest lyric poet; ; Heinrich der Schreiber (''c''. 1180 - ''c''. 1230); and Reinmar von Zweter (''c''. 1200 - ''c''. 1250.

''Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg'' (or, in English, "Tannhäuser and the Song-Contest at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_castle Wartburg Castle]]"), more commonly know as ''Tannhäuser'', is a "romantic opera in three acts" by Creator/RichardWagner. The opera first premiered in Dresden in 1845, but a revised and extended version (translated into French!) was prepared by the composer for the Paris ''Opéra'' in 1861, and it is this later version that is more commonly performed today (in a suitably Teutonic retranslation by the composer).

* TheHighMiddleAges: Around the turn of the 12th/13th centuries, though some producers like to costume it in the style of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manesse_Codex Manesse Codex]] from the first half of the 14th. (This MS. gives us the famous [[http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglitData/image/cpg848/2/264r.jpg representation]] of the orginal Tannhäuser wearing the habit of UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights.)

* OpeningBallet: When Wagner was revising ''Tannhäuser'' in preparation for the 1861 Paris production, he had to accomodate the ''Opéra'''s demands that every opera should have a ballet, preferably in the middle of the evening. Wagner objected to placing the ballet in the second act, instead providing a ballet at the very beginning -- thus provoking noisy demonstrations by the gentlemen of the royalist Jockey Club.

* TheHighMiddleAges: Around the turn of the 12th/13th centuries, though some producers like to costume it in the style of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manesse_Codex Manesse Codex]] from the first half of the 14th. (This MS. gives us the famous [[http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglitData/image/cpg848/2/264r.jpg representation]] of the orginal Tannhäuser wearing the habit of TheTeutonicKnights.)

'''''Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg''''' (or, in English, "Tannhäuser and the Song-Contest at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_castle Wartburg Castle]]"), more commonly know as '''''Tannhäuser ''''', is a "romantic opera in three acts" by Creator/RichardWagner. The opera first premiered in Dresden in 1845, but a revised and extended version (translated into French!) was prepared by the composer for the Paris ''Opéra'' in 1861, and it is this later version that is more commonly performed today (in a suitably Teutonic retranslation by the composer).

* HolyRomanEmpire: The Minnesinger period, obviously. ''Landgraf'' Hermann refers to the struggle between the ''Welfen'' and ''Waiblingen'', ''i.e.'', the Guelphs (or Papal party) and the Ghibellines (or Imperial party).
** "Guelphs" and "Ghibellines" are Italianized forms of the names of the two leading noble houses of the Empire, the the Saxon Welfen (Welfs?) and the Swabian Hohenstaufen (called "Waiblingen" after one of their estates to alliterate with "Welf", although this derivation has been disputed). At the time the Hohenstaufen usually provided the German kings and Roman emperors, which is why the popes tended to support their hereditary enemies, the Welfen (who only provided one emperor, Otto IV). In Italy the names came to be applied to the Imperial and the Papal party and, after the end of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, to parties specific to certain Italian states. The Welf family exists to this day, better known as the House of Hanover.

Wagner's opera drew from many sources: a popular ballad reprinted in the famous folk-song collection, ''Des Knaben Wunderhorn''; [[DichterAndDenker Heinrich Heine]]'s poem „''Der Tannhäuser: Eine Legende''"; Creator/ETAHoffmann's "Der Kampf der Sänger" (included in his ''Die Serapions-Brüder''); and possibly from Carl Maria von Weber's ''Theatre/DerFreischuetz'', an opera which Wagner greatly admired and with which ''Tannhäuser'' shows some structural similarities (Weber himself had considered writing a Venusberg opera). It proved highly popular in Germany, but the première of the revised version at the Paris ''Opéra'' was a notorious failure -- though more for political and personal reasons than artistic ones. (The gentlemen of the royalist Jockey Club resented both Wagner's patron, the Bonapartist Princess Metternich, and his refusal to put the then-obligatory ballet sequence in the second rather than the first act of the opera, requiring the ''prime donne'' of the ''Opéra'' to forgo either the ballet or their suppers -- with the gentlemen of the royalist Jockey Club. At the first three performances they interrupted the opera with cabman's whistles, and the disgruntled Wagner withdrew the work. (To the anti-Semitic composer's even greater disgust, the settings and costumes were immediately re-used for a new production of [[AmbiguouslyJewish Meyerbeer]]'s ever-popular ''Robert le Diable''.)) However, the new version quickly established itself, and the opera, in both versions, has proven to be one of the composer's most popular works, both in the opera-house and in the concert-hall.

Wagner based the plot of his opera on a conflation of two originally unconnected legends. The first tells of a minnesinger (or "minstrel of love") and knight, called ''the'' Tannhäuser (literally, "man from the fir-tree-home"), who descended into a subterranean kingdom under a mountain (the so-called "Mountain of Venus" or ''Venusberg'', identified by Wagner with the real [[http://www.grosserhoerselberg.de/garbage/31/318277/1222017.jpg Hörselberg]] near the town of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenach Eisenach]]) and won the favors of the goddess of love (called alternately Venus or Holda, her Latin or German names, by Wagner); after a period of some years, the knight repented and fled the Venusberg to seek penance from [[ThePope Pope Urban IV]]; the pope rejects his penitence, telling him that sooner will his staff grow new leaves than forgiveness be possible for such as he, and Tannhäuser, despairing, returns to Venus -- three days later the staff does indeed burst into leaf, but the pope's messengers cannot find the knight. The second tells of the "War of Song" conducted by the legendary minnesinger Heinrich von Ofterdingen (and his sorcerous companion Clinschor (=Klingsor (!)) of Hungary) against the most famous minstrels of mediæval Germany at the court of ''Landgraf'' (or "territorial count") Hermann von [[TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Thüringen]]; in the course of which Clinschor prophecies the birth of Elizabeth of Hungary, later to be the wife of the Landgrave's son and a canonized saint. Wagner radically reshaped these legends, identifying the [[HistoricalDomainCharacter historical]] (though pseudonymous) Tannhäuser with the (probably) mythical Ofterdingen, and transporting the former from his own time (''fl. c''. 1250 A.D.) to that of Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia, some 50 years before, and transforming the Landgrave's daughter-in-law into his niece and Tannhäuser's true love

* OlderThanTheyThink: Wagner's identification of Tannhäuser with Heinrich von Ofterdingen may have been suggested by Ludwig Bechstein and Christoph Theodor Leopold's similar (and dubious) identification, some fifteen years earlier.

* RecursiveImport: Various portions of ''Tannhäuser'' were rewritten for the Paris production, and the words had to be retranslated into German.
* TenorBoy: Heinrich and Walther.
* UnfortunateName: Wagner's original name for his opera was ''Der Venusberg'', but he was convinced to change it when the [[DoubleEntendre unfortunate implications]] of translating it into French were pointed out to him -- since « ''La Monte de Vénus'' » ("The Mountain of Venus") is one letter off from « ''mont de Vénus'' » ("mound of Venus") which refers to the pubic mound.
** And the "Wartburg" in question is the castle and not TheAllegedCar [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_(car) named after it]].

* BettyAndVeronica: Elisabeth and Venus.

* {{Flanderization}}: Happens to, of all things, the staff. In the original and Wagner's version, the staff is to send forth new leaves; some productions and later depictions (''e.g''., Creator/HGWells' ''The Man Who Could Work Miracles'') make the staff burst into ''bloom'', particularly roses.

* DesignatedHero: Heinrich is traditionally the least popular of Wagner's heroes, being a wishy-washy whiner and obviously ''far'' less worthy of Elisabeth than Wolfram.

* {{Flanderization}}: Happens to, of all things, the staff. In the original and Wagner's version, the staff is to send forth new leaves; some productions and later depictions (''e.g''., [[HGWells H.G. Wells]]' ''The Man Who Could Work Miracles'') make the staff burst into ''bloom'', particularly roses.

* TheHighMiddleAges: Around the turn of the 12th/13th centuries, though some producers like to costume it in the style of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manesse_Codex Manesse Codex]] from the first half of the 14th. (This MS. gives us the famous [[http://cafe.joins.com/cafeimage/k/y/kyunggi58/Der%20Tannhauser%20by%20Codex%20Manesse%20480x668.jpg representation]] of the orginal Tannhäuser wearing the habit of TheTeutonicKnights.)

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: As in these lines: „''Wenn wir den grimmen Welfen widerstanden,/Und den verderbenvollen Zwiespalt wehrten...''‟[[hottip:*:"If we withstood the grim Guelphs, and warded off disastrous division...]]

'''''Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg''''' (or, in English, "Tannhäuser and the Song-Contest at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_castle Wartburg Castle]]") is a "romantic opera in three acts" by Creator/RichardWagner. The opera first premiered in Dresden in 1845, but a revised and extended version (translated into French!) was prepared by the composer for the Paris ''Opéra'' in 1861, and it is this later version that is more commonly performed today (in a suitably Teutonic retranslation by the composer).

For a summary of the plot, the our [[Synopsis.{{Tannhaeuser}} synopsis page.]]

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Wagner's Landgrave claims to have "withstood the grim Guelphs." The real Hermann of Thuringia actually leapt continually from Guelph to Ghibelline, generally choosing, with inspired ineptitude, whichever party was just about to receive a major shellacking.

* HolyRomanEmpire: The Minnesinger period, obviously. ''Landgraf'' Hermann refers to the struggle between the ''Welfen'' and ''Waiblingen'' (''See'' DidNotDoTheResearch'', above''), ''i.e.'', the Guelphs (or Papal party) and the Ghibellines (or Imperial party).

* PopculturalOsmosis: How many people know the "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coLxM2hq_gA Pilgrims' Chorus]] as "Film/WhatsOperaDoc Wetuwn, my Wuv! A wonging buwns deep inside me!]]"?

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tannhaeuser_5832.jpg

Probably the TropeNamer for the TannhauserGate.

!!''[[{{Tannhaeuser}} Tannhäuser]]'' Is Associated With The Following Tropes

[[folder:Synopsis:]]
-->In the Venusberg, mythological figures cavort, until dismissed by the goddess Venus (mezzo-soprano), who is discovered holding the knight Heinrich (tenor) in her arms; he tells her that he wishes to return to the human world; she rebukes him and tries to keep him with her, but he calls upon the Virgin Mary, and she vanishes with the whole Venusberg. A young shepherd (soprano) sings a song of spring, and hails a chorus of pilgrims on their way to the "Festival of Grace" at Rome; Tannhäuser keels in gratitude at the foot of a wayside cross. There he is discovered by ''Landgraf'' Hermann (bass) and his attendant minnesingers, including Walther von der Vogelweide (tenor), Biterolf (bass), and Heinrich's best friend Wolfram von Eschenbach (baritone), all of whom urge him to return with them to the Landgrave's castle, the Wartburg; he is unwilling, until Wolfram reveals to him that his beloved Elisabeth has been mourning ever since his departure. Heinrich decides he must see her, and the others joyfully acclaim his return.

-->At the Wartburg, Elisabeth (soprano), rejoices that Heinrich is returning. Wolfram leads Heinrich to her; sadly reflecting that all hope of gaining her love is gone. The young men depart, and the landgrave calls on Elisabeth to greet the nobles, who are gathering that day for a song-contest. The landgrave proposes that the minstrels expound the nature of love in their songs: Wolfram sings of love as an inspiring spiritual force, but Heinrich, interrupting as if in a trance, sings of love being in essence a source of sensual delight and declares that only those know love, who have experienced it in the Venusberg. All but Elisabeth denounce him; the knights draw their swords -- until Elisabeth interposes, calling on them to spare him, so his soul can be saved. Heinrich collapses in penitence; the landgrave commands him to seek pardon from the Pope, and the knights threaten him with death should he return unabsolved. The voices of the younger pilgrims setting out for Rome fill the hall; and Heinrich rushes out to join them.

-->A musical interlude depicts Heinrich's pilgrimage to Rome.

-->In autumn, Wolfram finds Elisabeth praying before the cross; they encounter the pilgrims returning from Rome, but Heinrich is not among them. Elisabeth departs to consecrate her death to Heinrich's salvation, renouncing all hope of human happiness. Wolfram, having called upon Heaven to accept Elisabeth (in his famous "Evening Star" song), is accosted by a dark figure. It is Heinrich. He informs Wolfram that his repentance has been rejected by the pope, who declares he can no more receive forgiveness than can the pope's staff deck grow green leaves; in despair, Heinrich seeks to return to Venus, who appears, to Wolfram's horror. Wolfram urges Heinrich to reject her and seek salvation – in vain, until he names Elisabeth as Heinrich's angel, praying for him at the throne of God. Venus vanishes. The nobles descend from the Wartburg, bearing Elisabeth's bier, on which the redeemed Heinrich sinks insensible. The younger pilgrims return, bearing the staff which has burst into new leaf, and all join to acclaim the miracle of God's mercy.
[[/folder]]

Wagner's opera drew from many sources: a popular ballad reprinted in the famous folk-song collection, ''Des Knaben Wunderhorn''; [[DichterAndDenker Heinrich Heine]]'s poem „''Der Tannhäuser: Eine Legende''"; Creator/ETAHoffmann's ''Der Kampf der Sänger'' (included in his ''Die Serapions-Brüder''); and possibly from Carl Maria von Weber's ''[[DerFreischuetz Der Freischütz]]'', an opera which Wagner greatly admired and with which ''Tannhäuser'' shows some structural similarities (Weber himself had considered writing a Venusberg opera). It proved highly popular in Germany, but the première of the revised version at the Paris ''Opéra'' was a notorious failure -- though more for political and personal reasons than artistic ones. (The gentlemen of the royalist Jockey Club resented both Wagner's patron, the Bonapartist Princess Metternich, and his refusal to put the then-obligatory ballet sequence in the second rather than the first act of the opera, requiring the ''prime donne'' of the ''Opéra'' to forgo either the ballet or their suppers -- with the gentlemen of the royalist Jockey Club. At the first three performances they interrupted the opera with cabman's whistles, and the disgruntled Wagner withdrew the work. (To the anti-Semitic composer's even greater disgust, the settings and costumes were immediately re-used for a new production of [[AmbiguouslyJewish Meyerbeer]]'s ever-popular ''Robert le Diable''.)) However, the new version quickly established itself, and the opera, in both versions, has proven to be one of the composer's most popular works, both in the opera-house and in the concert-hall.

* UnfortunateName: Wagner's original name for his opera was ''Der Venusberg'', but he was convinced to change it when the [[DoubleEntendre unfortunate implications]] of translating it into French were pointed out to him -- since « ''La Monte de Vénus'' » ("The Mountain of Venus") is one letter off from « ''mont de Vénus'' » ("mound of Venus") which refers to the pubic mound.

'''''Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg''''' (or, in English, "Tannhäuser and the Song-Contest at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_castle Wartburg Castle]]") is a "romantic opera in three acts" by RichardWagner. The opera first premiered in Dresden in 1845, but a revised and extended version (translated into French!) was prepared by the composer for the Paris ''Opéra'' in 1861, and it is this later version that is more commonly performed today (in a suitably Teutonic retranslation by the composer).

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Quite a few: ''der Tannhäuser'' (''c''. 1205 - ''c''. 1270) himself (though, as far we know, he was not named Heinrich -- he ''may'' have been named Liutpolt), a mid-thirteenth century minnesinger, some of whose songs have survived; Herman, Landgrave of [[TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Thuringia]] (''c''. 1160 - 1217); Wolfram von Eschenbach (''c.'' 1170 - ''c.'' 1220), possibly the greatest of mediæval Germany's narrative poets (whose ''Parzival'' inspired Wagner's ''Parsifal''); Walther von der Vogelweide (''c''. 1175-''c.'' 1230), certainly mediæval Germany's greatest lyric poet; ; Heinrich der Schreiber (''c''. 1180 - ''c''. 1230); and Reinmar von Zweter (''c''. 1200 - ''c''. 1250.
* HolyRomanEmpire: The Minnesinger period, obviously. ''Landgraf'' Hermann refers to the struggle between the ''Welfen'' and ''Waiblingen'' (''See'' DidNotDoTheResearch'', above''), ''i.e.'', the Guelphs (or Papal party) and the Ghibellines (or Imperial party).

* UnfortunateName: Wagner's original name for his opera was ''Der Venusberg'', but he was convinced to change it when the [[DoubleEntendre unfortunate implications]] of translating it into French were pointed out to him -- since « ''La Monte de Vénus'' » ("The Mountain of Venus") is one letter off from « ''mont de Vénus'' » ("mound of Venus") which refers to the pubic mound.