Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Notes on this Translation
- Introduction: “He could not breathe without her”
- 1 “I have become her despot”: From Love to Marriage
- 2 “Deprived of incipient motherhood”: Riga, London, Paris, 1836–42
- 3 “Home for me is you alone”: Dresden 1842–47
- 4 “My knucklehead of a husband”: Revolution and Its Aftermath, 1848–50
- 5 “This ridiculous, amorous intrigue”: The Jessie Laussot Affair, 1850–51
- 6 “That good, foolish man …”: Exile in Zurich, 1852–54
- 7 “I’m a poor, stupid woman to have let you go …”: Zurich and London, 1854–56
- 8 “Alas, now all our happiness is gone …”: The Wesendonck Scandal, 1857–58
- 9 The Bitter End, 1858–59
- 10 “In love and fidelity, your Emma”: Emma Herwegh
- 11 “Neither wife, housekeeper, nor friend”: Dresden, Paris, Biebrich, 1860–62
- 12 “That weak, blind man …”: The End of a Marriage, 1863–66
- References
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Introduction: “He could not breathe without her”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Notes on this Translation
- Introduction: “He could not breathe without her”
- 1 “I have become her despot”: From Love to Marriage
- 2 “Deprived of incipient motherhood”: Riga, London, Paris, 1836–42
- 3 “Home for me is you alone”: Dresden 1842–47
- 4 “My knucklehead of a husband”: Revolution and Its Aftermath, 1848–50
- 5 “This ridiculous, amorous intrigue”: The Jessie Laussot Affair, 1850–51
- 6 “That good, foolish man …”: Exile in Zurich, 1852–54
- 7 “I’m a poor, stupid woman to have let you go …”: Zurich and London, 1854–56
- 8 “Alas, now all our happiness is gone …”: The Wesendonck Scandal, 1857–58
- 9 The Bitter End, 1858–59
- 10 “In love and fidelity, your Emma”: Emma Herwegh
- 11 “Neither wife, housekeeper, nor friend”: Dresden, Paris, Biebrich, 1860–62
- 12 “That weak, blind man …”: The End of a Marriage, 1863–66
- References
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Summary
In March 1872, Cosima Wagner, Richard’s second wife, wrote in her diary: “Richard calls to me: What’s the difference between Wotan and Siegfried? Wotan married Minna, but Siegfried married Cosima.” In Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Fricka is Wotan’s nagging wife, constantly reminding him of his obligations and needling him with barbed comments. By contrast, Siegfried’s love for Brünnhilde is an ecstatic passion that overwhelms them both like a force of nature. Wagner used comparisons like this to encourage what became the stereotypical image of his first wife Minna, one that has dominated her reception down to the present day.
But Minna Wagner saw her relationship with Richard from a different perspective, one that seems more realistic. In 1855, when they were living in Zurich, she declined a joint invitation from friends by writing: “My lord and master is still unwell, so we were unable to come and hear Mrs. Hoffmann sing […] I simply had to stay and take care of my child.” Describing Richard as both “lord and master” and “child” in the same sentence offers us a succinct summing-up of their respective roles in their marriage, as Minna saw things. She was the lover-cum-mother, while Richard, the supposed patriarch, was in fact emotionally dependent on her. In the years when they lived together, Minna washed and mended his clothes, massaged him with olive oil, and heated his bathwater; but she also listened patiently to his plans and ideas, and let him play his operas to her as he wrote them. She shielded him from outside disturbances, haggled with servants, and even took on the lowliest chores when servants were beyond their means, sewing his underwear and his dressing gowns. In short: she ran the whole household and provided him with his creature comforts. It was Richard who was always running up debts, not her; but when these became so great that illicit escape was the only option, she joined him in moonlight flits across fields on all fours and endured perilous storms at sea by his side, though the strain of it stretched her sanity to its breaking point.
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- Minna WagnerA Life, with Richard Wagner, pp. 1 - 11Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022