Far below in
the valley a band of young pilgrims is passing, and the sound of their
solemn hymn rises to the castle windows; the pious strains put new life
into the despairing Tannhaeuser, and crying 'To Rome, to Rome,' he
staggers from the hall.
The scene of the third act is the same as that of the first, a wooded
valley beneath the towers of the Wartburg; but the fresh beauty of
spring has given place to the tender melancholy of autumn. No tidings of
the pilgrim have reached the castle, and Elisabeth waits on in patient
hope, praying that her lost lover may be given back to her arms free and
forgiven. While she pours forth her agony at the foot of a rustic cross,
the faithful Wolfram watches silently hard by. Suddenly the distant
chant of the pilgrims is heard. Elisabeth rises from her knees in an
agony of suspense. As the pilgrims file past one by one, she eagerly
scans their faces, but Tannhaeuser is not among them. With the failure of
her hopes she feels that the last link which binds her to earth is
broken. Committing her soul to the Virgin, she takes her way slowly back
to the castle, the hand of death already heavy upon her, after bidding
farewell to Wolfram in a passage which, though not a word is spoken, is
perhaps more poignantly pathetic than anything Wagner ever wrote. Alone
amid the gathering shades of evening, Wolfram sings the exquisite song
to the evening star which is the most famous passage in the opera.
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