fastnachtspiel

Updated: January 13, 2026

Hans Sachs wrote no less than 208 dramas, which he divided into "Carnival Plays," "Plays," "Comedies," and "Tragedies." He dropped the first designation in his later years, but his first dramatic effort was a Fastnachtspiel, and treated the subject of Tannhauser and Venus. It bears the date February 21, 1517, and was therefore written 296 years before Wagner was born.

Henry Edward Krehbiel - A Book of Operas : Their Histories, Their Plots, and Their Music