Wagner-Jewel: Bayreuth auctioned Tannhäuser Manuscript for 140,000 euros!

Wagner-Jewel: Bayreuth auctioned Tannhäuser Manuscript for 140,000 euros!

The National Archive of the Richard Wagner Foundation Bayreuth bought a significant manuscript by Richard Wagner. It is the first version of the libretto of the opera "Tannhäuser", which was long considered lost. The auction took place at Christie’s in London, and the contract was around 140,000 euros. The purchase was supported by the Cultural Foundation of the States and the Higher Franconia Foundation, each of which took over a third of the costs. This information reports the Kleine Zeitung .

The meaning of the manuscript is enormous. Bayreuth's Mayor Thomas Ebersberger (CSU) described Wagner manuscripts as relatively rare to this extent. The libretto is considered the most important Wagner manuscript that has come onto the market in the past 20 years. Wagner gave the manuscript in 1852 to his friend Wilhelm Baumgartner from Zurich. Later the trace of the manuscript lost until it was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 1996 before it came to the collection of the art collector Helmut Nanz, who died in 2020. The Tagesspiegel .

research and history of origin

The manuscript contains numerous corrections, deletions and additions that make it particularly interesting for research. There are significant differences to the net writing, which is already in Bayreuth. These news underline the importance of the manuscript for the history of the work, which was premiered in Dresden in 1845. The director of the Richard Wagner Museum, Sven Friedrich, expressed concerns about justification for the expenses, but at the same time emphasized the obligation to bring such important objects into the public sector in order to make them open to the public, such as the Idowa reported.

The rediscovery of the manuscript is an important step for Wagner research and the legacy of the composer, and it remains to be hoped that it can offer numerous new insights into the history of one of the best known works.