Richard Wagner ALSOBYOREDITEDBYJOHNLOUISDIGAETANI ANDFROMMCFARLAND Wagner Outside the Ring: Essays on the Operas, Their Performance and Their Connections with Other Arts(2009) Stages of Struggle: Modern Playwrights and Their Psychological Inspirations(2008) Inside the Ring: Essays on Wagner’s Opera Cycle (2006) Wagner and Suicide (2003) Carlo Gozzi: A Life in the 18th Century Venetian Theater, an Afterlife in Opera(2000) Richard Wagner New Light on a Musical Life JOHN LOUIS DIGAETANI McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA DiGaetani, John Louis, 1943–, author. Richard Wagner : new light on a musical life / John Louis DiGaetani. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-4544-8 ♾ softcover : acid free paper 1. Wagner, Richard, 1813–1883. 2. Composers—Germany—Biography. I. Title. ML410.W1D56 2014 782.1092—dc23 [B] 2013039869 BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE © 2014 John Louis DiGaetani. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the cover: Richard Wagner and King Ludwig II, color lithograph by Michael Mathias Prechtl (courtesy of the Stadtmuseum Amberg) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com To my sister Annette This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1. A Child of War: 1813–1821 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2. The Child as Victim: 1821–1830 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 3. Student in Leipzig: 1823–1833 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 4. Minna and Magdeburg: 1833–1840 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 5. Russia, England and Paris (First Sojourn): 1837–1842 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 6. Kapellmeister in Dresden—Premieres of Rienzi,The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser: 1840–1849 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 7. Revolution in Dresden: 1848–1850 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 8. Wagner and Liszt—The Premiere of Lohengrin: 1849–1850 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 9. Refuge in Zurich—The Development of Big Plans: 1850–1857 . . . . . . . . . 90 10. The Idea of the Ring: Italy: 1857–1858 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 11. The Wesendoncks: 1858–1859 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 12. Venice, Switzerland and Paris: 1859–1861 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 13. Paris and Tannhäuser: 1860–1861 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 14. Vienna, Russia and Matrimonial Crisis: 1861–1864 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 15. The Rescue by King Ludwig II of Bavaria: 1864–1865 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 16. Tristan in Munich: 1864–1865 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 17. The Triangle in Triebschen: 1865–1870 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 18. Meistersinger Premiere in Munich: 1868–1871 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 vii Table of Contents 19. Hans, Cosima and King Ludwig: 1870–1874 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 20. The Idea of Bayreuth—The Premiere of the Ring: 1873–1876 . . . . . . . . . 175 21. Wagner and Nietzsche: 1876–1880 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 22. Parsifal: 1881–1882 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 23. Death in Venice: 1883 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Conclusion: A Life of Extremes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 viii Acknowledgments I would like to thank Hofstra University for granting me a sab- batical and travel funds to work on this book. I would also like to thank the Richard Wagner Museum at Bayreuth and the Geheimnis (Secret) Archive of the Bavarian State Library for help in researching this book. The New York Public Library kindly provided illustrations for this book. Finally, I would like to thank Elayne Horn and Maribeth Bobeck for their encouragement. ix