otally uncalled-for and incredible
falling away or repentance at the end, on the part of one who has in
no way sinned--to wit, Tannhaeuser; the music of _Parsifal_ is sickly,
tired, with mystical chants that make one's gorge rise in disgust; the
music of _Tannhaeuser_ is strong, healthy, full of manly passion--even
at its saddest it is free of the nauseating whining of _Parsifal_.

II

Tannhaeuser, a knight and celebrated minstrel, led away by an
exaggeration of healthy human desires, has left his friends and gone
to live with Venus in the Hoerselberg. He soon tires of her; she tries
to keep him; he calls on the Virgin; the hallucinatory dream is
shattered, and he is in the free open spring air. A shepherd boy plays
on his pipe and chants a song to spring; a procession of old pilgrims
to Rome passes; Tannhaeuser, feeling his exaggeration of passions, sane
enough in themselves, to be a sin, praises the Almighty for his
deliverance from what seems now to him like an evil dream. Hunters'
horns are presently heard from all sides; enter Tannhaeuser's former
friends, Walther, Wolfram, Biterolf with the rest; they try to
persuade him to return to his former life with them, but in vain,
until Wolfram tells him that by his singing he had won the heart of
the Landgrave's daughter Elisabeth, and she has pined ever since at
his unaccountable disappearance. Tannhaeuser, at first incredulous, in
the end joyfully agrees to go back to the Wartburg, where the
Landgrave's castle can be seen, and the merry clatter of hunting horns
is heard on all sides as the curtain falls. It will be seen that there
is no vestige of the old stage trickery of the _Dutchman_ here: all
seems natural because all is inevitable; of songs and concerted pieces
we get plenty, but they grow spontaneously out of the drama: the drama
is not twisted and delayed for the sake of getting them in.

In the second act Elisabeth has heard of her knight's return; she
enters the hall of song and pours forth her feelings of thankfulness;
Tannhaeuser comes in and begs to be favoured; there is a long
love-duet; and then preparations are made for a musical tournament.
The popular march is played; the hall becomes crowded; the Landgrave
makes a speech--satisfying to German audiences, no doubt, because it
praises German valour and music--and in announcing the subject on
which the minstrels shall enlarge, he hints that perhaps Tannhaeuser in
his contribution will let them know