The
two elements war against each other without ever merging into one. Those
parts of the music which characterise Elizabeth are full of noble pathos
and a little sentimental. At the beginning of the second act she is not
yet herself; she can still laugh like a light-hearted girl, but when she
again succumbs to Tannhaeuser's unearthly (and to her fatal) charm, and
realises how irrevocably he has surrendered himself to Venus, she rises
to true greatness and resolutely faces the swords unsheathed to punish
the offender. Before our eyes she is transformed into the saint who
realises her mission and is ready to take her burden upon her; more
heroic than Beatrice or Margaret, she points to him "who laughingly
stabbed her heart," the road to salvation. Like her two predecessors
Elizabeth prays to Mary for the salvation of her lover--the prayer for
the beloved has ever been woman's truest and most fervent prayer.
The thought of achieving a man's salvation through a great and steadfast
love, is the subject of the _Flying Dutchman_, and plays, as is well
known, an important part with Wagner.
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