- Wagner composed Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (Tannhäuser and the Singing Contest on the Wartburg, WWV 70) in 1846. He revised the work in 1860; there is also a Paris version which he created in 1860-1 and revised in 1875.1
- Wagner composed this opera while he was employed as Second Kapellmeister at the Dresden court of the King of Saxony. Wagner held this position between 1843-1849.
- In early 1849, Wagner fled his position and settled in Zurich, after participating in the May Uprising in Dresden in 1848. (This particular insurrection was part of a wave of revolutions that passed through Europe in 1848.)2
- Tannhäuser premiered in Dresden at the Semperoper on October 19, 1845.3
- Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera
Sources
- “Tannhäuser, WWV 70 (Wagner, Richard),” IMSLP, accessed May 26, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Tannh%C3%A4user%2C_WWV_70_(Wagner%2C_Richard).
- Barry Millington, John Deathridge, Carl Dahlhaus, and Robert Bailey, “Wagner, (Wilhelm) Richard,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed May 27, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278269.
- “Tannhäuser, WWV 70 (Wagner, Richard),” IMSLP.
Cut IDs
11701 16966 16971 17801 20230 20365 21773 23296 23297 40914 41244 41245 44857 45916 49478 49479