R I C H A R D WAG N E R
TANNHÄUSER
CONTENTS
P.
4
SYNOPSIS P.
6
A ROCKSTAR ON TOUR LYDIA STEIER IN AN INTERVIEW P.
12
TANNHÄUSER AS A DRAMA OF AN ARTIST PHILIPPE JORDAN P.
18
THE LONG JOURNEY OF TANNHÄUSER OLIVER LÁNG
P.
24
OMNIPRESENT IN VIENNA ANDREAS LÁNG P.
28
THE TRIPTYCH OF ARTWORK DEVELOPMENT A CONVERSATION WITH MOMME HINRICHS & ALFRED MAYERHOFER P.
32
THANK YOU, RICHARD WAGNER! JONATHAN DOVE P.
40
IMPRINT
R I C H A R D WAG N E R
TANNHÄUSER UND DER SÄNGERKRIEG AUF WARTBURG ROMANTIC GREAT OPERA in three acts (“Viennese version”) Libretto RICHARD WAGNER
ORCHESTRA 3 flutes (3rd also piccolo) 2 oboes / 2 clarinets 1 bass clarinet / 2 bassoons 4 horns / 3 trumpets 3 trombones / tuba timpani / percussion / 2 harps violin I / violin II / viola violoncello / double bass STAGE MUSIC 3 flutes / 2 oboes / cor anglais 3 clarinets / 2 bassoons / 10 horns 9 trumpets / 4 trombones / tambourine cymbals / triangle / harp / viola
PREMIÈRES Dresden Court Theatre (“Dresden version”) Opéra de Paris (“Paris version”) Vienna Court Opera (“Viennese version”)
19 OCT 1845 13 MAR 1861 22 NOV 1875
PREMIÈRE AT THE HOUSE ON THE RING 22 JUNE 1870 Vienna Court Opera DURATION
3 H 15 M
INCL. 2 INTERMISSIONS
PHILIPPE JORDAN
existing scene. (He did somewhat pro vocatively propose starting the opera later than usual, around 8 p.m., which the opera house was understandably not prepared to consider for a moment.) The way that Wagner initially adopted existing traditions, only to gradually abandon them and develop new prac tices which he then built on, is par ticularly impressively shown in other examples in Tannhäuser. For example, the great crowd scenes, the tableau finales also seen in Verdi, such as the “Erbarm dich mein” (Grant me mercy) ensemble at the end of the second act – scenes where time simply stands still, clearly embracing the spirit of French grand opera, and gradually disappear ing. The classic four, eight and sixteen bar phrases which still appear in text book alignment with the verses in Tan nhäuser recall their counterparts in Carl Maria von Weber. However, in the Paris version these phrases start to overlap and dissolve. Conversely, both the a cappella pilgrims’ choruses and the re ligious element in the third act – espe cially in the prelude – point very clearly to Parsifal, which was composed 35 years later. The Venusberg crescendos, the frequent repetitions and sequences of motifs which appear in the Dresden version of Tannhäuser, can also be seen as a preliminary study for the Tristan crescendos. Tannhäuser also has an in novation in the third act which is inter esting in purely dramatic terms. Unlike Der fliegende Holländer, this act has for the first time the function of processing what has gone before, a type of stillness and transcendence which makes possi ble the subsequent summation and res olution. Wagner repeatedly returns to this idea in later works. Something else I find very exciting is a detail in the so-
called Rome narrative in the third act, a twist which suddenly recurs in Rhein gold. Tannhäuser’s words, repeating the Pope’s words to him, “Wie dieser Stab in meiner Hand” (As this staff in my hand), are sung in a different key, but the phrase is otherwise virtually identical to Alberich’s “Kein Froher soll sich seiner freun” (None shall have joy of its wealth). Clearly, Wagner had created a curse leitmotif for more than one piece. I wonder if he knew! All the above processes fundamentally involve a growing development of the leitmotif technique, which the increasing length of his works made necessary as a dra matic and musical link. The figure of Wolfram, who basi cally is only marginally in the shade of the title figure, can also be seen as a harbinger of music drama ideas in Wagner’s late works. Tannhäuser is shown clearly as a type of anarchist, rebelling against society. However, the more I study the work, the less I consider him to be a genuine artistic genius. He certainly has talent and inspiration, as we see in the minstrel contest, where he has the only lively and inventive melody in comparison with the others. Tannhäuser undoubt edly owes this to his encounter with Venus, but he is unable to present this material in a form which allows him to create a real work of art. Wolfram is a different matter. Certainly, his entry in the minstrels’ contest is very lame, but it must be remembered that Wolfram is in a very difficult situa tion emotionally – he loves Elisabeth, but knows that he has no chance. And this is the mood in which he has to sing about love. Nothing really great can come of this, at least at this mo ment in the action. He finally achieves
16
TANNHÄUSER AS A DR A M A OF AN ARTIST
a true work of art in the third act with the song to the evening star. What is Wagner trying to say here? That em pathy matures through transcendence,
experience of suffering, and this can create something great. And this is al ready Parsifal purely transformed into artistry.
CLAY HILLEY as TANNHÄUSER EKATERINA GUBANOVA as VENUS
17
ANDREAS LÁNG
OMNI PRESENT IN VIENNA Difficult as it may be to believe, Wag ner‘s music was first heard in public in Vienna, in the Volksgarten, and under the baton of Johann Strauss. At that soiree on 28 March 1853 – a truly memorable date for Wagnerians – the Waltz King’s orchestra performed a programme that included an arrange ment of the “Pilgrims” Chorus’ from Tannhäuser. Thanks to the exuberant response, the orchestra kept the piece in their repertoire from then on. Although various theatre directors in the Austrian imperial city had pre viously tried to obtain performance rights for Rienzi, Lohengrin and also Tannhäuser, these works had never been performed there, for a variety of rea sons. Those living within the borders of present-day Austria who wanted to ex perience Tannhäuser in its entirety were able to do so for the first time in 1854 in Graz. In Vienna itself, it was not until three years later that Wagner‘s grand romantic opera was finally staged, on 28 August 1857. But as so often happens with the première of a milestone in mu
sical theatre, this performance did not take place at the city’s leading theatre, i.e. the “venerable” Court Opera, but on a summer stage – yes, there was already summer theatre back then – at the socalled Thalia Theatre. This wooden venue, long-since demolished, was located in the 16th district, where today the Gürtel and Thaliastrasse (named after this theatre) intersect. It served as a temporary venue for the Theater in der Josefstadt during the summer months. Despite some neg ative newspaper reviews, the enormous success of Tannhäuser is evidenced by the fact that Tannhäuser moved to the primary theatre, the Theater in der Jo sefstadt, that same autumn. But despite obvious interest on the part of the pub lic, the Court Opera continued to hesi tate; by then, a Tannhäuser parody writ ten by Johann Nestroy and Carl Binder had become a crowd-puller at Vienna’s Carl Theatre. Only once Lohengrin had proved successful at the Court Opera did things finally change, and Tann häuser was included in the season at the
24
OMNIPRESENT IN VIENNA
city‘s most important musical theatre venue from 19 November 1859 – albeit with cuts and distortions resulting from censorship. For example, since the word “Rome” as the hub of Christianity could not be mentioned on the Court Opera stage, the two lines in the dialogue between Wolfram and Tannhäuser in the third act, “Did you not go to Rome?” and “Do not speak to me of Rome” had to be changed to “Were you not there?” and “Do not speak to me of that place.“ At all events, while in Vienna in 1861 Rich ard Wagner refused to attend a perfor mance of Tannhäuser that included these changes. In 1869, with the opening of the large, newly built opera house on the Ring – today’s Vienna State Opera – a new chapter began in the cultivation of Wagner, particularly in the perfor mance history of Tannhäuser. Within just a few years (1870-1875), the opera was performed no fewer than 46 times. The great capstone was a new staging and musical production in November 1875, which Richard Wagner directed himself, at least in part. And even if, as Cosima Wagner noted in her diary, “nothing was as R. really intended” at the première, its success seems to have been overwhelming. Incidentally, the so-called Viennese version of Tann häuser, a modified version of the 1861 Paris version, was then performed for the first time. However, no sooner had Wagner left Vienna than the decision was made to return to the earlier Dres den version and also to gradually re introduce the staging with the earlier cuts. It was Gustav Mahler who first put an end to this mania for cuts, but at the same time he made slight changes to the
instrumentation, which were not nec essarily well received. In the following decades, several new productions fol lowed – almost every new director put on a new Tannhäuser, switching con stantly between the Dresden and Vi ennese versions. In 1909, director Felix von Weingartner opted for a new pro duction of the Dresden version, director Hans Gregor then switched back to the Viennese version in 1913, and under the dual direction of Richard Strauss and Franz Schalk this version was retained. No sooner had Strauss stepped down than Franz Schalk went back to the Dresden Tannhäuser, and a new pro duction of the Paris version followed in the second Weingartner era. One thing was however undisputed: after Lohen grin and The Flying Dutchman, Tann häuser was easily the most popular and most frequently performed Wagner opera in Vienna. Even in the ten years between 1945 and 1955, when the State Opera facility could not be used due to damage resulting from the war and al ternative venues had to be found, Tann häuser remained on the schedule, and the State Opera performed the work no fewer than 65 times at what is now the Volksoper. And since the reopening of the house on the Ring, there have been no fewer than four new productions – in 1956 under Rudolf Moralt and directed by Josef Gielen (Vienna version), in 1963 under the overall direction of Herbert von Karajan (Vienna version), in 1982 under Lorin Maazel in Otto Schenk’s production (Vienna version), and in 2010 (once again in the Dresden ver sion) under Franz Welser-Möst in Claus Guth’s production. We should also not forget three new productions at what is now the Volksoper: in 1906, under
25
JONATHAN DOVE
in the world of piety, there will be nothing to equal it. It will be impossible for Elisabeth to compete. We really feel the wrench of Tannhäuser tearing himself away, with fierce discords just before the music sub sides to the pastoral sounds of a shepherd and his pipe in Scene Three. At first, the diatonic simplicity of the pilgrims chorale is refreshing and welcome after the intoxicating chro maticism of Venusberg. Although it’s interesting that, upon meeting the pilgrims, Tannhäuser praises God with a minor chord. Is he already regretting leaving Venusberg? And now something very arresting: groups of horns, a dozen in all, calling to each other in the distance and coming nearer. But with the arrival of the landgrave and Wolfram in Scene Four we are into a more conven tional world of straightforward tonality and regular phrases. The mention of Elisabeth transports Tann häuser, and Wolfram sings about her with charming sincerity, but the music doesn’t “take off” in anything like the way it did around Venus. We really are in an other world – a less exciting one. When Tannhäuser asks to be taken to Elisabeth, his music feels like a longing for safety, after the dangerous thrills of his adventure. No more leaps into the unknown. Now we meet Elisabeth: we are touched by her joy at the return of her beloved, and she sings something graceful, beautiful. But is it just me, or are we longing for some musical fireworks, especially when she is re united with Tannhäuser? The earthbound tonic-dom inant predictability of their duet is such a long way from the ecstatic levitation you conjured up for Tann häuser’s experiences with Venus, it makes us feel that this happiness is doomed. (In fact, when you wrote this duet, were you remembering Fidelio? I’m sure you conducted Beethoven’s opera, and I hear an echo of “O namenlose Freude.”) A grand march saves the day. You have always been brilliant at these, Richard, and this one has an en chanting elegance and lightness to balance the majes tic fanfares, as all the guests arrive for the song con test. The sense of occasion is splendid and uplifting. The harp accompaniment to Wolfram’s song doesn’t contain any harmonic surprises, but it shouldn’t: his earnest, conventional piety contrasts wonderfully
36
T H A N K YO U, R IC H A R D WAG N E R !
with the memories of Venusberg we hear rising up in Tannhäuser. Of course he won’t be able to help him self: his song of praise for Venus will burst out of him, forcing the music upwards and bringing down outrage on his head. And now Elisabeth comes into her own. Her interces sion builds into my favourite music in the opera. The harmony remains within her pious world, but her pas sion gives birth to a compelling melody “Ich fleh’ für ihn, ich flehe für sein Leben” which is then taken up by the knights, while Tannhäuser’s remorse rises to a new intensity, and all the voices combine in a power ful climax. The first time I heard this in the theatre, I found it shattering, and rushed home to play it over and over again on the piano. Even today, it feels like a revelation that I can’t explain. If the rest of the opera is never less than the work of a master-dramatist, this ensemble, like the Venusberg music, gives us a taste of the inexplicable genius that would radiate through all your work after Lohengrin. This passage makes your most persuasive case for virtue. However, overall, I’m not sure I’m completely convinced by your presentation of the pious world in this opera. Apart from the thrilling Pilgrims’ Cho rus, I’m not sure your heart is always in it. I think you made the sacred more appealing, and perhaps more convincing, in Parsifal. Here, the profane and sensual wins hands down, which perhaps makes Tannhäus er’s eventual spiritual redemption a little hollow. Is this why you were never satisfied with Tannhäuser? It certainly hasn’t stopped the world enjoying it! I don’t mean to sound critical. What I really want to say is: Thank You, for your creations, and for showing us what is possible. If I have been lucky to see and hear so many different productions of my own operas, it is thanks, in no small degree, to what I have learned from you. Doing my best to connect music and drama has enabled me to tell stories in an involving way, which shows that even the least of us can learn from a master. I can never thank you enough, Richard, for all your inspiration! Yours affectionately, Jonathan
37
Following pages: SCENE