By Our choice of music for today is particularly inspired by my maternal grandfather’s musical preferences. He loved Wagner. And Goethe’s Faust, incidentally.
Tannhäuser (full title Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg, “Tannhäuser and the Minnesingers’ Contest at Wartburg”), is an 1845 opera in three acts by Richard Wagner, (WWV 70). It’s content is based on the two German legends “Tannhäuser” (a legendary medieval German Minnesänger and poet) and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story centers on the struggle between sacred and profane love, and redemption through love.
Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser
Bayreuth, 1978
Elisabeth – Gwyneth Jones
Venus – Gwyneth Jones
Landgraf – Hermann Hans Sotin
Tannhäuser – Spas Wenkoff
Wolfram von Eschenbach – Bernd Weikl
Walther von der Vogelweide – Robert Schunk
Biterolf – Franz Mazura
Heinrich der Schreiber – John Pickering
Reinmar von Zweter – Heinz Feldhoff
