Sunday Classics: What if Wagner had called it "Wolfram von Eschenbach and the Song Contest at the Wartburg"?

The Wartburg, overlooking Eisenach in Thuringia, housed the
ruling landgraves of Thuringia until the mid-15th century.

by Ken

As I indicated in Friday night's "sneak peek" preview, we're easing into Wagner's Tannhäuser, the second of his ten mature operas, but we're going to be looking at it from what I think is an unusual perspective, that of the hero's fellow minnesinger and best friend, Wolfram von Eschenbach.

Bearing in mind that the opera's proper title is Tannhäuser und der Sangkrieg auf dem Wartburg -- Tannhäuser and the Song Contest at the Wartburg ("a castle situated on a 1230-foot precipice to the southwest of, and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany"), we're going to begin this eventual three-part series with a more or less direct assault on the Song Contest, in Act II. The minnesingers (properly speaking, Minnesänger) of 12th-to-14th-century Germany took their name from their reason for existence: celebration of Minne, love. Besides Tannhäuser and Wolfram, we encounter four other minnesingers, whom we'll actually be hearing in the next part of this series -- they all have solo parts, but they also function as an indivduated chorus, clearly a dry run for Wagner's eventual Mastersingers of Nuremberg.

In Wagner's evocation of Thuringian society the singers are, clearly, highly esteemed; the song contests being great events. Clearly the title character was the one who interested Wagner most was obviously Tannhäuser, a free spirit who loves being the center of his community's attention but chafes under its rules. He has to see everything for himself, try everything for himself, make his own determinations. It's not hard to see why Wagner thought the guy was aces -- clearly reminded him of someone he thought he knew well. The relationship between Tannhäuser and Wolfram

I'm trying something audacious: plunging right into Wolfram's contest song. As we'll see in the click-through, when we take a fuller look at the scene, the order of contestants is determined randomly, but it's appropriate and satisfying that it's Wolfram who first rises to the Landgraf's challenge to explain "the true essence of love."

Friday night we heard the Belgian bass-baritone José van Dam singing Wolfram's gorgeous evening-star song from Act III, our eventual destination in the final part of this series. From that same Wagner CD we hear Wolfram's contest song.

ABOUT THE "AUDIO LINKS" (NEW! NEW! NEW!)

If you're not having any trouble getting the post's audio clips to play, you can ignore these links. But if you do have trouble with a clip, there's a chance that the link to the onsite posting will enable you to hear, assuming I've gotten the clip right. (One one level I think of the clips as a new opportunity to screw stuff up.)

WAGNER: Tannhäuser: Act II, Wolfram, "Blick' ich umher in diesem edlen Kreise" ("When I look around this noble circle")

WOLFRAM: When I look around this noble circle,
what a sublime spectacle makes my heart glow!
So many heroes, valiant, upright and judicious,
a forest of proud oaks, magnificent, fresh and green.
And ladies I behold, charming and virtuous,
a richly-perfumed garland of lovely blooms.
My glance becomes enraptured at the sight,
my song mute in face of such radiant loveliness.
I lift my eyes up yonder to one star
which stands fast in the firmament and dazzles me:
my spirit draws comfort from that distance,
my soul devoutly sinks in prayer.
And behold! Before me a miraculous spring appears,
which my spirit glimpses, filled with wonder!
From it, it draws bliss, rich in grace,
through which, ineffably, it revives my heart.
And never would I sully this fount,
nor taint the spring in wanton mood:
I would practise myself in devotion, sacrificing,
gladly shed my heart's last drop of blood.
You noble ones may gather from these words
how I do apprehend love's purest essence to be!
[He sits down.]

José van Dam, bass-baritone; Orchestre National de Lille, Jean-Claude Casadesus, cond. Forlane, recorded 1990 [audio link]

Beyond the sheer gorgeousness of this free-form music, I'm overwhelmed by the nobility, sensitivity, imagination. What the Wagner "experts" rarely comment on is the deep artistic honesty of his observation of his characters, which made it possible for him to create in Wolfram, a character whom he clearly regarded as second banana to Tannhäuser, someone of such richness and dimension, thanks in good part to the staggering beauty of nearly all of his music. (Sometimes I have to wonder whether the Wagner "experts" actually ever listen to the music.)

To strike a more festive note before clicking through, let's retreat to a more obvious starting point: the gathering of the guests for the Song Contest, picking up at the first sound of the trumpets announcing to the Landgraf the arrival of "the nobles of my lands" (we have full English texts in the click-through; for now, just think "joy" and "joyful," with the occasional "hail" thrown in), in a rousing, even breathless live performance from the 1962 Bayreuth Festival.

Tannhäuser: Act II, Landgraf, "Schon nahen sich die Edlen meiner Lande" ("Already the nobles of my land are nearing") . . . Entry of the Guests, "Freudig begrüssen wir die edle Halle" ("Joyfully we greet the noble hall")

Josef Greindl (bs), Landgraf Hermann; Bayreuth Festival (1962) Chorus and Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Philips, recorded live, 1962 [audio link]


TO CONTINUE WITH OUR SAMPLING OF "THE SONG
CONTEST AT THE WARTBURG," CLICK HERE

THE TANNHÄUSER SERIES

Part 1: What if Wagner had called it Wolfram von Eschenbach and the Song Contest at the Wartburg?
Act II and the Song Contest
"Sneak" preview and main post

Part 2: Continuing our look at Tannhäuser from the vantage point of Wolfram von Eschenbach --
Circling back to Act I
Preview and main post

Part 3: Finally we reach Act III --
Wolfram's vigil over Elisabeth
Preview and main post

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