Wagner as I Knew Him

On the “Ninth Symphony,” that colossal work, Richard Wagner expended commensurate pains. I remember how surprised the vocalists were at the rehearsal, when he stopped them, inqu...

DEAREST FRIENDS: Heartiest thanks for your love, which after all is the one thing which has made the dull London lastingly dear to me. I wish you joy and happiness, and, if poss...

The story of the invitation of Richard Wagner, the then dreaded iconoclast of music, to London, to conduct the concerts of the conservative Philharmonic Society, is both curious...

The year of the Revolution, Wagner’s flight and exile,--to comprehend the full significance of these three incidents of magnitude, the condition of society, the determination of...

I went to Munich and found Wagner considerably depressed. “Tristan,” the work he evidently loved with no ordinary affection, had, after seven years of hoping against hope, but j...

I now come to perhaps the most important period in Richard Wagner’s life, full of deep interest in itself, and pregnant with future good to our art. Additional interest is furth...

For some time Rosalie and Louisa, Richard’s two sisters, had been engaged at the Leipzic theatre, where they were very popular. Madame Geyer, desirous of being near her daughter...

That a young artist but six and twenty years of age, with a wife dependent on him for existence, unknown to fame, almost penniless, and even without art works that he could show...

The story of the composition of “Tannhäuser,” poem and music, is a forcible illustration of the proverb, that the life of a man is reflected in his works. Of the music and the p...

Viewed from an art standpoint, those dreary years of misery, spent in the centre of European gaity, were the crucial epoch of Richard Wagner’s career. Then, for the first time,...

For nine months, from the Easter of 1836 to the opening of the new year, 1837, Wagner was without engagement. It was a period of hardship and suffering. In a most miserable plig...

As regards his literary productions, that which provoked most discussion and engendered a good deal of acrimonious hostility towards him was “Judaism in Music.” No one knowing W...

However inclined the Dresden musical press may have been to be captious and antagonistic towards Wagner, there were certain decided evidences of gifts whose existence they could...

In the summer of 1856 I spent two months under Wagner’s roof at Zurich. As it was holiday time for me, and Wagner had no engagements of any importance, we passed the whole perio...

Had Wagner’s youthful enthusiasm been fired at the Dresden Kreuzschule with love for Germany and hatred of the French oppressor, a feeling which flew through the land like light...

From now begins a new epoch in Wagner’s life. The call he had received from Dresden filled him with delirious joy. The world was not large enough to hold him. He trod on air. Th...

His first visit to Eisleben--the going among strange people, new scenery, and for the first time sleeping away from his mother’s home--was the first great event of his life, and...

Pursued by a police warrant, Wagner first sought refuge and a home in Paris. The French capital possessed alluring attractions for him, but his reception, in 1849, was no bright...

From Paris Wagner went to Carlsruhe, whence he wrote to me the following letter. The allusion in the opening phrases of his letter is to my inability to stay for the third perfo...

From the time I left Zurich in the autumn of 1856, to the untoward fate of “Tannhäuser,” at Paris, in March, 1861, of the several letters which passed between Richard Wagner and...

Seldom has the proverb “The child is father to the man” been more completely verified in the life of any prominent brain-worker than in that of Richard Wagner. The serious think...

His first impression of London was not a pleasant one. The day was wretched, raining heavily, and the streets were thick with mud. At the Custom House Wagner was helped through...

From the record of the Kreuzschule it appears that Wagner entered that famous training college on the 22d December, 1822, as Richard Wilhelm Geyer, son of the late court actor o...

The passage to Boulogne began pleasantly, but a bad sailor at all times, he did not escape the invariable discomforts of a channel journey. His large Newfoundland dog, for whom...

How Wagner came to be invited to London--I appear before the directors of the Old Philharmonic--I find that they either know very little of him or nothing at all--Richard Wagner...

Wagner significantly silent as to his participation in the Saxon Revolution, 1848-49--Wagner an active worker--Conclusive proof--A member of the “Fatherland Union”--Paper read b...

The importance attached to the question--The paper said to have been prompted by personal jealousy--Absurdity of the accusation--The London press hostile because of his Jewish c...

The Paris sojourn the crucial epoch of Wagner’s career--The grand opera the hothouse of spurious art--Concessions to anti-artistic influences--Realism of the historic opera irre...

Wagner seeks an asylum in Paris--His reception disappointing--Leaves for Switzerland--A second time within the year he returns to Paris--Again vexed at the little recognition he...

interment at Wahnfried will think of the faithful canine creature (a successor of “Peps”), who came to lie on the grave, and could not be induced to quit the spot where his mast...

“Tannhäuser”: story of its composition, poem and music--Its performance, 1845--First mention of Richard Wagner’s name in the London press--The criticisms (?) of 1845--An instanc...

The sanguine Wagner boldly invades Paris--Later reflections of the bitter sufferings he underwent there--Why he went to Paris--Germany offers no encouragement to native talent--...

The new Chamber of Deputies--The king of Saxony refuses to accept the constitution formulated by the federated German parliament--The chambers dissolved by the king--Wagner urge...

The “Ninth Symphony” rehearsed--Surprise of the orchestra--Guildhall, Fafner, and Falsolt--The mint and his projected theatre--Daily promenade of Richard Wagner with dog to Rege...

Return to Leipzic--The Stadttheater; Rosalie and Louise--Jews, their treatment by Leipzic townspeople--Wagner’s attitude towards them--His first love a Jewess--At the St. Nicola...

Hostility of the Dresden press--Wagner’s energy and good humour when at the conductor’s desk--A born disciplinarian--Unflagging efforts to improve the spiritless performances of...

New and hopeful prospect--Feels assured of “Rienzi” proving successful--Ignored by Paris, received with open arms by Dresden, the hallowed scene of Weber’s labours--Joy at retur...

Life and troubles at Magdeburg--Wagner marries--Minna Planer: the woman, her home, her trustful love--Reflections on his life at Magdeburg--His ability as a conductor of the orc...

Passage to Boulogne--The Mansons, friends of Meyerbeer--Wagner’s visit to Meyerbeer--Character of Meyerbeer--Interests himself in the youthful Wagner--The reading of “Rienzi” li...

“The child is father to the man”--Musician, poet, and dramatist--Stage reformer--His grandfather a customs officer--His father, Frederick Wagner, an officer of police, student,...

Letters of Wagner--In Paris--Home at Zurich--Domestic pets--“Cries constantly” at the death of “Peps”--Buries the dog--Minna ill--Wagner on a sick-bed--His acquaintance with the...

Richard Wagner enters the Kreuzschule, Dresden, December, 1822--Translation of part of the “Odyssey” by private work--Begins to learn English to read Shakespeare--Writes prize e...

Munich--Wagner in low spirits--His relations with the young king of Bavaria--His house--Fearlessness of speech--Presence of mind--Intrigues against him--Leaves for Geneva--Retur...

Revolution and romanticism at the beginning of the nineteenth century--Its effect on Wagner--First grand symphony for orchestra--Mendelssohn and Wagner--Wondrous dual gift of mu...

His visit to an uncle Geyer at Eisleben--The Kreuzschule, Dresden--His facility for languages--His modesty--Wagner a small man--Personal appearance described--Wonder of school p...

A picture of Minna--Wagner an early riser--His acquaintance with Schopenhauer--Wagner a pessimist?--The first promptings of “Tristan and Isolde”--How did Richard Wagner compose?...

First impression--Puts up at cheap hotel in Old Compton Street, Soho--Loss and return of the dog--Visit to a house in Great Portland Street where Weber died--Thoughts on English...

His health “shattered”--Goes to Venice--Returns to Paris--Resides in Octave Feuillet’s house--The strong opposition of the press--The origin of the performance of “Tannhäuser”--...