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
12 - “That weak, blind man …”: The End of a Marriage, 1863–66
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
After his separation from Minna, Richard felt terribly lonely:
I am always alone, with—servants. Me! No woman at my side! No educated person with whom I might converse at home! […] Neither king nor emperor can offer me anything if things aren’t right at home! I cannot find any rest. Now I am again looking for a woman who might keep my things in order: it comes and goes, I cannot decide. Am I cursed that I can’t get any help in this?
In the spring of 1862, Richard made the acquaintance of the 29-year-old Mathilde Maier at a soirée held by his publisher Schott in Mainz. They were apparently introduced by Wendelin Weissheimer, a friend of her family who also knew Wagner well. He told Wagner in advance about her, and later described their meeting in boorish terms: “When she came, he was sitting in one of the side alcoves of the salon that were cordoned off by heavy curtains. I led her there, pulled back the curtain a little and said: ‘Herr Wagner— Fräulein Maier,’ then I pushed pretty Mathilde inside and closed the curtain behind her again.” Mathilde, however, recalled their encounter rather differently, and in a way that sounds more credible. She wrote that Wagner had been depressed and so did not want to be introduced to anyone. He had actually already left the gathering, but had returned because of a storm raging outside. He went to a room adjoining the party, where Weissheimer and a neighbor from Mathilde’s table took turns to keep him company. Mathilde claimed that she had passed a message to Wagner in jest that she was expecting him to join her. He agreed, and indeed went to sit at her table.
Richard enjoyed the admiration Mathilde bestowed on him, and he saw in her a possible future life partner—one who could manage his household, of course, but who could also help to fulfill his emotional needs and share in his intellectual life. His letters to her do not exude the ecstatic rapture that we find in his correspondence with her namesake Wesendonck, but Wagner would have dearly liked to have this other Mathilde as a lover and even as a wife—if only Minna were no longer on the scene.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Minna WagnerA Life, with Richard Wagner, pp. 318 - 346Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022