Song To The Evening Star
(O Du, Mein Holder Abendstern)
(Richard Wagner)
Song To The Evening Star
(O Du, Mein Holder Abendstern)
by Richard Wagner
“ Song To The Evening Star ” (“O du, mein holder Abendstern”) is an aria sung by the character Wolfram (baritone) in the third act of Richard Wagner’s 1845 opera Tannhäuser. Wolfram’s aria is a pretty magical moment in Wagner’s Tannhäuser. It’s almost a stand-alone song within the opera, the minstrel having a musical soliloquy, and it feels much gentler, much more intimate than everything that has come before. Wolfram is singing to the evening star, thinking of Elizabeth and her sad love for Tannhäuser.
Lyrics
(English – Translation)
Wolfram:
Dusk covers the land like a premonition of death,
Wraps the valley in her dark mantle;
The soul that longs for those heights
Dreads to take its dark and awful flight.
Then you appear, O loveliest of stars,
And shed your gentle light from afar;
Your sweet glow cleaves the twilight gloom,
And as a friend you show the way out of the valley.
O you, my fair evening star,
Gladly have I always greeted you:
Greet her, from the depths of this heart,
Which has never betrayed her,
Greet her, when she passes,
When she soars above this mortal vale
To become a holy angel there!
Songwriters: Richard Wagner
Song To The Evening Star (O Du, Mein Holder Abendstern)
(German – Original)
Wolfram:
Dusk covers the land like a premonition of death,
Wraps the valley in her dark mantle;
The soul that longs for those heights
Dreads to take its dark and awful flight.
Then you appear, O loveliest of stars,
And shed your gentle light from afar;
Your sweet glow cleaves the twilight gloom,
And as a friend you show the way out of the valley.
O you, my fair evening star,
Gladly have I always greeted you:
Greet her, from the depths of this heart,
Which has never betrayed her,
Greet her, when she passes,
When she soars above this mortal vale
To become a holy angel there!
Songwriters: Richard Wagner