Tannhäuser (Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg)
The premiere of Tannhäuser was on 19 October 1845 in Dresden, and Richard Wagner conducted. Although the premiere was an artistic disaster, Tannhäuser soon became a popular opera to produce for the smaller theatres in Germany. Unfortunately this was more an artistic than financial success for Wagner, since he was paid only a very small sum for the entire run.
One of the greatest scandals in theatre history occured in Paris in 1861. Wagner refused to place the obligatory ballet in the second act, which the high society members of the so-called Jockey Club required. The members of the Jockey Club would not tolerate this and ruined the performance by causing a riot.
Tannhäuser was first performed at Bayreuth in 1891 with Felix Mottl conducting in Cosima Wagner's production.
Said about Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser is a gift for any stage director. The opera is an incredible work of fantasy. It swarms with personal matters and the things he had struggled with all his life. It is a compendium of all those elements that would come along later, and that makes it harder to find a way through the different approaches to the piece and to discover what we consider its quintessence.
David Alden in conversation with Peter Jonas
It's crazy, it's insane, it's sick, it's obsessive.
David Alden in a TV documentary about Tannhäuser and Wagner
Tannhäuser is a horrible great mess of an opera. But a wonderful one.
Peter Jonas in a TV documentary about Tannhäuser and Wagner
Tannhäuser was produced in the following cities the first years after the world premiere on 19 October 1845
| 1849 | Weimar (Franz Liszt) |
| 1852 | Schwerin Breslau Wiesbaden |
| 1853 | Leipzig Kassel Posen |
| 1855 | Hannover Karlsruhe Zürich (two performances conducted by Wagner) München |
| 1856 | Berlin |
Famous quotes from Tannhäuser
Wolfram
O du, mein holder Abendstern, wohl grüsst' ich immer dich so gern.
Said about Tannhäuser
Mark Twain
I saw the last act of "Tannhäuser." I sat in the gloom and the deep stillness, waiting--one minute, two minutes, I do not know exactly how long--then the soft music of the hidden orchestra began to breathe its rich, long sighs out from under the distant stage, and by and by the drop-curtain parted in the middle and was drawn softly aside, disclosing the twilighted wood and a wayside shrine, with a white-robed girl praying and a man standing near. Presently that noble chorus of men's voices was heard approaching, and from that moment until the closing of the curtain it was music, just music--music to make one drunk with pleasure, music to make one take scrip and staff and beg his way round the globe to hear it.
Mark Twain in a Travel letter from Bayreuth