ABSTRACT
In the standard telling of the story, Richard Wagner, the greatest German composer since Beethoven, came to Paris to have his Tannhäuser performed on the stage of the Opéra, then the most important music theater in Europe. The story of Wagner's Parisian Tannhäuser began long before the ill-fated premiere in March 1861. It goes back to the young Wagner's first visit to Paris, when he tried to establish himself as an opera composer in the musical capital of the nineteenth century. From a Parisian standpoint, Wagner made one tactical mistake after another during the lead-up to the premiere, gambling away any general goodwill toward the controversial musician of the future. Even in the battle between Wagnerians and anti-Wagnerians, the successful use of wit became a yardstick for critics' powers of persuasion. The Parisian journalists responded in this strong and concerted fashion not only because Wagner had offended French taste, but because his competing aesthetics called into question everything they prized.
