Tristan and Isolda (Tristan Und Isolde): A Dramatic Poem (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Excerpt from Tristan and Isolda (Tristan Und Isolde): A Dramatic Poem

Ithoroughly satiated. I have in my head Tristan and Isolda, the simplest but most full-blooded musi'cal conception; with the black flag which flo'ats'at the end Of it, Ishall cover myself to die. And his Diary concluded: Here will the Tris tan be completed, a defiance to all the raging Of the world. And with that, an I may, shall I return to see thee, comfort thee, to make thee happy: there looms my fairest, my most sacred wish. So be it! Sir Tristan, Lady Isolda! Help me, help my angel! Here shall thy wounds cease bleeding, here shall they heal and close. For here shall the world once learn the sublime and noblest stress of highest love, the plaints of agonizing joy, and august as a god, serene and hale, shalt thou then behold me, thy lowly friend. Between these two leaves from Wagner's Diary came the actual tragic experience, the strange and fateful drama which forever inspired and yet forever saddened his life, that drama in which the inspiration was Ma thilde Wesendonck, his dearest friend,w his own Isolda. We need not enter into the details of the story Of that real love tragedy. She has told us that when she first met Richard Wagner she was a blank page. Upon this page Wagner in scribed the music-drama Of Tristan and Isolda. These few facts may be mentioned. She was born at Elberfeld, in Germany, in 1828, and was thus fifteen years his junior. She was educated at Dusseldorf and Dunkirk. In 1848 she mar ried Otto Wesendonck. For two years or more x11they lived in America. In 1857 they settled again in Europe, at Zurich. She was a woman of very decided literary ability, and wrote many books in prose and verse. Wagner formed a friend ship with this family, and finally went to live near them in the suburbs Of Zurich in April, 1857. On July 4 he wrote: The poem of Tristan is still slumbering in me; I shall shortly pro ceed to call it to life. He wrote the first draft in prose, completing it August 20. Less than a month later, on September 18, 1857, he com pleted the poem of Tristan and Isolda, and presented it to Mathilde Wesendonck. A year later he wrote in his Venice Diary: A year gone to-day I finished the poem of Tristan and brought thee its last act. Thou led'st me to the chair before the sofa, placedst thy arm around me and saidst: I no more have a wish!' On this day, at this hour was I born anew.tt13 inspiration Of the music now began to take shape. But in the midst came a sudden flight of Wagner from Zurich, and the romance was at an end. The whole story is told in the published correspondence. It is a strange episode Of ro mantic love and sentimental German friend-3' ship. But from its sorrow and tears the world is the richer for the fervent and ecstatic inspi ration Of Tristan and Isolda.

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