page_title: Tannhäuser
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Tannhäuser / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera, Tannhäuser on 19th October 1845, with Joseph Tichatschek as Tannhäuser and Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient as Venus. Drawing by F. Tischbein (1845).
context_page_description: Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg is a three-act opera with words and music by Richard Wagner. It was Wagner's fifth opera. He worked on it between 1842 and 1845. It was first performed at the Dresden Royal Opera on 19 October 1845 with Wagner conducting. The opera was a success. It became hugely popular in Germany.
  In 1859, Tannhäuser was the first Wagner opera to be performed in the United States of America. By 1861, the opera had been performed many times in Germany when Wagner was asked to revise the work for the Paris Opéra. Despite his best efforts, Wagner failed. He was not popular. Anti-Wagner riots broke out. He withdrew the work. It was not staged again in France until 1895. Meanwhile, the opera opened the second season of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in November 1884.
context_section_description: Wagner was in Paris completing The Flying Dutchman when he began thinking about writing another opera. A friend suggested Tannhäuser as a subject. Wagner did not like the tale. Back in Germany however, he gathered materials by Tieck, Heine, and others about Tannhäuser. Vacationing in Bohemia, he had a change of heart. He began preparing an outline for Tannhäuser. Returning home to Dresden, he immersed himself in the tale. He completed the opera in October 1845. He conducted the first performance that month at the Royal Opera House.
  His Venus said, "You are a genius, but you write such eccentric stuff that it is impossible to sing." His Tannhäuser was completely baffled. The audience was puzzled. The reception was lukewarm. Wagner began revisions at once. The second performance played to a near empty house. In 1859, Wagner offered Tannhäuser to the Paris Opéra. They wanted it sung in French. They also wanted a ballet in the second act. This so the Jockey Club had time to finish dinner and arrive at the Opéra just in time to ogle the dancers. Wagner refused to move the ballet from the first act to the second act. There were complaints. Jockey Club members interrupted the performance whenever possible. It was a disaster.
  The opera disappeared from the French stage for 34 years. A few years after the Jockey Club incident, Wagner began revising the Paris version. He produced a sophisticated sound version that was superior to the first draft. Though there are several set pieces in the opera, the opera is closer to Wagner's vision of complete independence from such set pieces. Tannhäuser is on the threshold of the leitmotif, and the diminishing of the sound power of the orchestra in favor of the sung word.
caption: Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera, Tannhäuser on 19th October 1845, with Joseph Tichatschek as Tannhäuser and Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient as Venus. Drawing by F. Tischbein (1845).
exif: {}