The first scene of the opera represents the charmed grotto where
Venus gently seeks to beguile the discontented knight, while
nymphs, loves, bacchantes, and lovers whirl about in the graceful
mazes of the dance, or pose in charming attitudes. Seeing
Tannhäuser's abstraction and evident sadness, Venus artfully
questions him, and when he confesses his homesickness, and his
intense longing to revisit the earth, she again tries to dazzle
him, and cast a glamour over all his senses, so as to make him
utterly oblivious of all but her.

Temporarily intoxicated by her charms, Tannhäuser, when called
upon to tune his lyre, bursts forth into a song extolling her
beauty and fascination; but even before the lay is ended the
longing to depart again seizes him, and he passionately entreats
her to release him from her thrall:--

''Tis freedom I must win or die,--
For freedom I can all defy;
To strife or glory forth I go,
Come life or death, come joy or woe,
No more in bondage will I sigh!
O queen, beloved goddess, let me fly!'

Thus adjured, and seeing her power is temporarily ended, Venus
haughtily dismisses her slave, warning him that he returns to
earth in vain, as he has forfeited all chance of salvation by
lingering with her, and bidding him return without fear when
the intolerance of man has made him weary of life upon earth.

A sudden change of scene occurs. At a sign from Venus, the