Wagner death

Autobiography of the German composer Richard Wagner

Mein Leben (German for "My Life") is the autobiography of the composerRichard Wagner, covering the years from his birth in to

Origins

On 17 July in Munich, Wagner began dictating Mein Leben to his then mistress Cosima von Bülow, whom he married in King Ludwig II of Bavaria asked him to write the memoir in a letter dated 28 May

You would cause me inexpressible happiness if you were to give me an account of your intellectual and spiritual development and of the external events of your life as well.^[1]

Wagner was indebted to the king, who had rescued him from a life of exile and financial embarrassment in the previous year.

At around the same time in , Wagner had heard the news of the death of his professional nemesis, the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. The book therefore ends on a 'triumphant' note with the exaltation of Wagner at the death of his supposed 'enemy.' ^[2]

The book is amongst the most readable of Wagner's prose writings, generally free of the complex syntax that is typical of his theoretical works.

His frequently tempestuous career, friendships and controversies make for a racy and often surprisingly frank account.

London: Victor Gollancz. He wore a black velvet skull-cap, to which a metal lyre was attached like a cockade, and on his back he bore a harp. I explained the whole affair to him, and described the punishment to which I had been subjected, and which seemed to me unjust. John, Eckhardt

However,

[t]he subjective quality [] emerges most clearly [] in the casual and sometimes condescending tone [Wagner] adopts towards contemporaries [], and it is present in the attacks on other composers of the age, above all on Meyerbeer.^[3]

Nonetheless, the book is a major source for both Wagner's life and for the world of music and culture in which he began his career.

The first publication

The final section of the book, covering to , was not completed until However, Wagner and Cosima had already determined to print a few copies for private circulation. The first volume was printed in in an edition of fifteen. Volumes 2 and 3 were printed in and , in editions of eighteen copies.

Wagner recruited the young Friedrich Nietzsche to act as proof-reader and to see the book through a press in Basel. Volume 4 was printed in in Bayreuth.

Robert wagner autobiography His visits were varied by those of the great male-soprano Sassaroli; and in addition to these two representatives of German and Italian music, we also had the company of Mieksch, her singing master. Music was still a secondary occupation with me when the news of Weber's death and the longing to learn his music to Oberon fanned my enthusiasm into flame again. Magee , pp. Wagner, settled into his new-found domesticity, turned his energies towards completing the Ring cycle.

There was no intention to distribute the book beyond a small circle of trusted friends; for this reason, rumours began to grow regarding the contents. Cosima herself was worried about some of the revelations in Mein Leben – in a letter to the King she wrote:

Had I not constantly begged him to say everything, however painful it might be, there is quite a lot he would not have set down.

I was bold enough to assert that you too would have asked him to do it, and so he plunges deep into a sea of unedifying memories.^[4]

This is despite the fact that Wagner, in dictating to Cosima, had watered down some of his past, particularly his love life and his involvement in the Revolution in Dresden.^[5] An extra copy of volumes 1 to 3 struck off by the Basel printer was acquired by the American collector Mrs.

Burrell in , and she was so surprised by what she read that she suspected it of being a forgery.^[6]

The frontispiece

Following a suggestion by Nietzsche, Wagner included a symbolic coat of arms as a frontispiece to the first volume. This showed a vulture (German: Geier) holding a shield with the constellation of The Plough (Wagen); thus referring both to Wagner's natural father Carl and to his beloved stepfather, Ludwig Geyer.^[7] This was later the source for Nietzsche's taunt (in a footnote in his book The Case of Wagner: A Musician's Problem),^[8] that Wagner might have been Jewish, as 'a Geyer (vulture) is almost an Adler (eagle)'.

Wagner autobiography As at October , three volumes remain to be published. My love for Greece, which afterwards made me turn with enthusiasm to the mythology and history of ancient Hellas, was thus the natural outcome of the intense and painful interest I took in the events of this period. I actually began my heroic poem in hexameter verse, but could not get through the first canto. Under this heading, however, she would never have let me suppose that she included dramatic art, but only Poetry, Music, and Painting.

Both 'Geyer' and 'Adler' were common Jewish surnames, although Ludwig Geyer was not in fact Jewish. However, as Nietzsche was at the time one of the very few who had read Mein Leben and had been a close associate of the composer, many assumed (as Nietzsche doubtless intended) that Wagner had revealed a Jewish paternity in the autobiography, which was not the case.

Subsequent publications

Over the years, and particularly after Wagner's death, Cosima attempted to recall all the copies that had been distributed. Many of these were apparently burnt by Cosima.^[9] The first generally published edition did not appear until , possibly to quell the rumours which had grown about the contents;^[10] this was cut and adapted by the Wagner family to cover up indiscreet comments or actions by Wagner which appeared discreditable.

The first complete public edition appeared in (in German). The edition translated by Andrew Gray^[11] is based on this and is the first complete English translation.

References

Citations

Sources

• John Deathridge, Wagner Beyond Good and Evil, Berkeley, ISBN&#;
• Barry Millington (ed.), The Wagner Compendium, London,
• Richard Wagner, tr.

  Andrew Gray, My Life, New York, ISBN&#;

• Marc A. Weiner, Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination, Nebraska,

External links