File:Lilli Lehmann as 'Venus' in Wagner's Tannhäuser.jpg

Identifier: wagnerslifeworks01kobb (find matches)
Title: Wagner's life and works
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Kobbé, Gustav, 1857-1918
Subjects: Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883 Composers
Publisher: New York : G. Schirmer
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
dances have been
elaborated and laid out upon a more careful allegori-
cal basis and the music of Venus has been greatly
strengthened from a dramatic point of view, so that
now the scene in which she pleads him to remain and
afterward warns him against the sorrows to which he
will be exposed are among the finest of Wagner's
compositions, rivaling in dramatic power the ripest
work in his music dramas.
Wagner's knowledge of the stage is shown in the
wonderfully dramatic effect in the change of scene
from the Venusberg to the landscape in the valley of
the Wartburg. One moment we have the many col-
ored glory of the court of the Goddess of Love, with
all its dancing nymphs, sirens and satyrs, its beautiful
grottoes and alluring groups ; the next all this has
disappeared, and from the heated atmosphere of
Venus unholy rites we are suddenly transported to a
peaceful scene whose influence upon us is deepened
by the crucifix in the foreground before which Tann-
hauser kneels in penitence. The peacefulness of the
Text Appearing After Image:

VENUS.

OPERAS 191

scene is greatly enhanced by the appearance upon a
rocky eminence to the left of a young shepherd who
pipes a pastoral strain, while in the background are
heard the tinkling of bells, as though his sheep
were there grazing upon some upland meadow. Be-
fore he has finished piping his lay the voices of the
pilgrims are heard in the distance, their solemn meas-
ures being interrupted by little phrases piped by the
Shepherd. As the pilgrims approach, the chorus be-
comes louder, and as they pass over the stage and
bow before the crucifix, their praise swells into an elo-
quent psalm of devotion.
Tannhciuser is deeply affected and gives way to his
feelings in a deep lament, against which are heard the
voices of the pilgrims as they recede in the distance.
This whole scene is one of marvelous beauty, the
contrast between it and the preceding scene being
enhanced by the religiously tranquil nature of the epi-
sodes it introduces and the music which accompanies
them. Upon the peaceful scene the notes of hunting

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