He then became a member of the Opéra National de Lyon where he had major success in the operas of Richard Wagner; especially the parts of Friedrich of Telramund in Lohengrin and Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser.
This and a number of geographical references have resulted in the present-day Wolframs-Eschenbach, previously Obereschenbach, near Ansbach in Bavaria, being officially designated as his birthplace.
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However, the evidence is circumstantial and not without problems - there are at least four other places named Eschenbach in present-day Bavaria, and Wolframs-Eschenbach was not part of Bavaria in Wolfram's time.
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Three of Middle High German literature's finest examples, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Hartmann von Aue's Erec and Iwein, were based on Perceval, Erec, and Yvain; the Three Welsh Romances associated with the Mabinogion, Peredur, son of Efrawg, Geraint and Enid, and Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain are derived from the same trio.
They belonged to the artisan and trading classes of the German towns, and regarded as their masters and the founders of their guild twelve poets of the Middle High German period, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, Konrad von Würzburg, Reinmar von Zweter, and Heinrich Frauenlob.
The version of Tannhäuser that can be heard in the movie is performed by Kiri Te Kanawa as Elisabeth, René Kollo as Tannhäuser, Håkan Hagegård as Wolfram von Eschenbach and Waltraud Meier as Venus with the London Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Marek Janowski.