The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-22

less, the marriage did take place; for
number of years it was a happy one,
fraught with beneficial consequences for
" agner, both as a man and as a musi-
clan.
At Magdeburg he was wont to read the
new plays offered for performance, SEEM
ingly prompted by. interest in them for
tnelr own sake, and partly by the desire
to find parts favorable for the display of
MS sWeetheart's talent If his wife failed
TO follow him in all the flights of his i'm
aglnatlon, yet they were sincerely attach
ed to each other, while her economy and
Willingness to suffer want herself sooner
tnan let her husband lack anything caus-
ed friends to call her his guardian angel.
To her, it may be said, the world owes
Lohengrin," Tristan and the Ring
des Nibelungen,' for she called his atten-
ton to the stories, declaring them to be
the very thing for operas"
On one occasion, her benefit shortly to
come off, both of them were eagerly seek
ing for Piece in which she could shine.
1t h"Dpened that she got hold of Ernst
Raupach's drama, 'Niebelungenhort.
and, thinking the part of Brunhilde would
SUIT her, she begged her lover to let her
READ some scenes of it to him, as she
round his rromptings very useful. For a
little while he listened patiently. At last,
tearing The book from her hand he ex-
claimed:
What a dreadful diction! 1t is a sin
SO to maui the beautiful German poem.
Thereon she somewhat angrily replied:
difficult"
IN do 1t asleep" replied Wagner.
well only hope you may sleep sweet
~ and for my benefit night give me an
improved Niebelungenhort Then I'll give
your piece and not Raupach's."
Agreed cried 10
But Brunhilde's speech must be just
as me as in Raupach's drama"
make that a condition. In my COM
edy all the parts will be beautiful" an
severed Wagner.
For a week he said nothing more about
the 'Niebelungenhort," kept away from
ms Usual evening companions parting
from his, aff1anced at an unusually early
hour. On being asked what the reason
was, he replied that he had undertaken
an important mission On the ninth day
ne called on his affianced, and holding
up manuscript, cried out: Here, Nina.
l Drlng you your 'Nibelungenhort' throw
pe'oii dpoInlhatlon into the stove, for
It's devilfsh cold here
Wagner read her the first acts hut =.
he proceeded 1t became clear to her thar
as Drama it would have no success. nor
olo she conceal the conviction The an
tnor' nurt and excited, jumped up and
was about to throw the work into the fire
When Nina caught his arm, exclaiming:
NO, don t! am grateful to you for
your -hlhoness. Perhaps you could make
an opera test of the Niebelungen. Give
me the work, do; do! PERHAPS the snb-
5ect will please you, some dav: then aek
me Tor the manuscript After their
marriage Frau Wagner one day showed
MIN the old drama, which he desired To
look at again. In the evening, when thew
We're together he sat at the piano and
began to play, soon also to sing the
words:
Die Liebe lockt den LEM,
In unserm Busen
Barg sic SIGH tief
Nun lacht sic selig dem LIGHT"
Hardly had he uttered the last words
when he sprang up.
For such subject one should possess
the genius of a Beethoven" he ex-
claimed.
ORIGIN OF "LOHENGRIN."
And such was the genesis of the Nibe-
lung tetralogy. But to the same inspira-
tlon Wagner owed the subject of 'Lohen-
grin, for she found the story in a book
OF talry tales, and suggested it to him.
some of the phrases occurring in the
lfbretto Frau Nina Wagner declared to
nave long been current in their house, as
Tor example, Iohengrin's admonition TO
Elsa: Never shalt thou ask me- She
also SAID that before their marriage She
had to give the promise which the knight
OF the swan required of Elsa.
But the worlds indebtedness to the
maestro's first wife is even greater,
When, the revolution of 1913 boke out and
drew wagner into the vortex it was she
who arranged his flight and saved him
from sharing the fate of his friend, Au-
gust Koecd, who suffered several years
Imprisonment for his participation. If
Frau Nina Wagner was an excellent
housekeeper, still she took the ltveliest
interest in her husbands creations. and
was delighted that he read his writings
and played his music to her first But
after their return to Paris and Wagner's
intimacy with LISTS family, 1t seems
that his feelings toward her gradually
changed, and the estrangement ended
with their separation.
Apropos of Wagner, 1t is related that
once at Baireuth Levi after conducting
a rehearsal of Tristan" asked Hans
Richter If he had been satisfied to which
the latter replied, 'The love motif, which
the 'celltsts have to give out, was played
with too little fire. Evidently they must
be married cellists who played 1t so
phlegmatically." And verify Hans Rich
ter was right; there was not bachelor
among them