Richard Wagner, Report on the Production of ‘Tannhäuser’ in Paris, translated by Niall Hoskin

November 2019, Volume 13, Number 3, 53–62.

On the night of 13 March 1861 at the Paris Opéra, the curtain rose on one of the great scandals in the annals of operatic history: the first of three attempted performances of ‘Tannhäuser’ disrupted by the prolonged catcalls and whistling of the white-gloved balletomanes of the Jockey Club. Wagner reported on the episode to friends in a letter of 27 March 1861, which appears here in a new translation.

I promised you that I would one day report in detail on all my Tannhäuser business in Paris; now that it has taken such a decisive turn and I can get a full overview of it, it is a source of personal satisfaction that I can come to a conclusion about it by means of a calm account, as it were for my own benefit. None of you can understand the story behind it properly unless I touch straight away on what decided me to go to Paris at all. So let me start from there.