Tannhäuser, WWV 70

The overture opens with a slow, hymn-like tune in the low woodwinds and brass, representing a chorus of pilgrims trudging toward Rome. This melody swells to a full, majestic brass statement, then recedes into the distance as if the pilgrims are walking out of earshot.

In its place comes music of a completely different character: shimmering, restless string figures and a seductive, twisting melody depict the Venusberg, the mountain grotto of sensual pleasure where the knight Tannhäuser has been living with the goddess Venus. This section grows increasingly agitated, with swirling scales and urgent rhythms suggesting Tannhäuser's inner conflict between temptation and guilt.

The two worlds then collide: fragments of the pilgrims' hymn fight for space against the Venusberg music, building through overlapping brass and strings. Finally the pilgrims' theme returns in full orchestral splendor, now topped with rushing violin figures, as the sacred melody triumphs and closes the overture in a blaze of sound. Listeners can follow the whole piece as a single emotional arc, from serenity through temptation to resolution, without needing to know the opera's plot in detail.

Wagner composed Tannhäuser between 1843 and 1845, drawing on medieval German legends about a knight torn between earthly love and religious redemption. The opera premiered in Dresden in 1845, with Wagner himself conducting, and he later revised it substantially for a Paris production in 1861, adding new music to the Venusberg scene. The overture quickly became one of the most frequently performed excerpts from any Wagner opera, since it distills the drama's central conflict into a self-contained orchestral piece. It entered the standard orchestral repertoire within Wagner's own lifetime and has remained there ever since, performed both as a curtain-raiser to the full opera and as a concert work in its own right.