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 Tannhaeuser. As the whirring sounds
grow fainter and fainter, the pilgrim's song is again heard gradually
approaching, and at last closing the overture in a joyous burst of
harmony. The first act opens with the scene in the Venusberg,
accompanied by the Bacchanale music, which was written in Paris by
Wagner after the opera was finished and had been performed. It is now
known as "the Parisian Bacchanale." It is followed by a voluptuous
scene between Tannhaeuser and Venus, a long dialogue, during which the
hero, seizing his harp, trolls out a song ("Doch sterblich, ach!"),
the theme of which has already been given out by the overture,
expressing his weariness of her companionship. The second scene
transports us to a valley, above which towers the castle of Wartburg.
A young shepherd, perched upon a rock, sings a pastoral invocation to
Holda ("Frau Holda kam aus dem Berg hervor"), the strains of his pipe
(an oboe obligato) weaving about the stately chorus of the elder
pilgrims ("Zu dir wall' ich, mein Herr und Gott") as they come along
the mountain paths from the castle. The scene, which is one of great
beauty, closes with the lament of Tannhaeuser ("Ach! schwer drueckt mich
der Suenden Last"), intermingled with the receding song of the
pilgrims, the ringing of church-bells in the distance, and the merry
notes of hunters' horns as the Landgrave and his followers approach.
The meeting with Tannhaeuser leads to an exp