we next find him at the castle of Wartburg, the home of Hermann the
Landgrave, whose daughter Elizabeth is in love with him. At the
minstrel contest he enters into the lists with the other Minnesingers,
and, impelled by a reckless audacity and the subtle influence of
Venus, sings of the attractions of sensual pleasures. Walter, of the
Vogelweide, replies with a song to virtue. Tannhäuser breaks out in
renewed sensual strains, and a quarrel ensues. The knights rush upon
him with their swords, but Elizabeth interposes and saves his life. He
expresses his penitence, makes a pilgrimage to Rome and confesses to
the Pope, who replies that, having tasted the pleasures of hell, he is
forever damned, and, raising his crosier, adds: "Even as this wood
cannot blossom again, so there is no pardon for thee." Elizabeth prays
for him in her solitude, but her prayers apparently are of no avail.
At last he returns dejected and hopeless, and in his wanderings meets
Wolfram, another minstrel, also in love with Elizabeth, to whom he
tells the sad story of his pilgrimage. He determines to return to the
Venusberg. He hears the voices of the sirens luring him back. Wolfram
seeks to detain him, but is powerless until he mentions the name of
Elizabeth, when the sirens vanish and their spells lose their
attraction. A funeral procession approaches in the distance, and on
the bier is the form of the saintly Elizabeth. He sinks down upon the
coffin and dies. As his spirit passes away his pilgrim's staff
miraculously bursts out into leaf and blossom, showing that his sins
have been forgiven.

The overture to the opera is well known by its frequent performances
as a concert number. It begins with the pilgrim's song, which, as it
dies away, is succeeded by the seductive spells of the Venusberg and
the voices of the sirens calling to Tannhäuser. As the whirring sounds
grow fainter and fainter, the pilgrim's song is again heard gradually