The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-02
LOVE LETTERS OF WAGNER.
The Passion of the Great Composers
Life Is Told.

Lie 1Oiu.
The fascination of the love letter
sweetness of stolen waters. The pri-
vacy and the intimacy of such docu-
ments make for us latter day vivi-
sectors of human emotions their chief
charm.
In the letter of Richard Wagner
to MathiIde Wesendonk, just pub
lished, the master shows himself, from
a side, familiar perhaps to his init
mate circle, but new to many who
know Wagner only as the Titan whose
brain conceived the "Gotterdammer-
ung," 'PTannhauser," and "Lohen-
grim
or Mathilde Wesendonk the master
said;
She is and remains my first and
only love. They were the zenith of
my life, those fearful anxious, beau
tiful years which I spent in the ever
growing enchantment of her nearness-
They hold all the sweetness of
my life"
MathiIde wesendonk's relation to
the master may be briefly explained.
Daughter of a worthy merchant of
Elberfeld, she married at 20 Otto
Wesendonk, partner in a great New
York silk business. In 1851 the Wes-
endonks, with their three children.
built a villa at Zurich on the Green
hill.
In Zurich they met the master at
Marshal Won Bieberstein's house. The
acquaintance, founded on mutual mu-
steal enthusiasts, ripened into friend
ship, and in 1857 Wagner and Frau
Mlhna, his first wife, came to live
in a little house, the Refuge, close
to the Wesendonk's villa.
In Mathilde. young. delicately beau
tiful-"a White, unwritten Leaf she
calls herself-Wagner found his spir-
it's mate.
At Zurich Wagner lived more on
the Green hill than in the Refuge.
Blissfully, peacefully, the days flowed
by. Frau Minna struck the first dis
cord.
That she should resent her hus-
bands love for Mathilde was inev-
liable. She had never possessed his
heart. She was sickIy, fretful, and
in music a Phiiistine.
There were scenes, opened letters,
wild reproaches, and passionate re-
ordinations.
He left theRefuge He might not
be with Mathilde; Minna's compan-
ionship was Uncomfortable.
He became a wanderer. From Ven
ice, Lucerne. Paris, Vienna he sent
Mathilde letters, music, leaves from
his diary.
In one of his letters he says:
Who feels it more clearly than I
that it is this accused art which
eternally gives me up to the torment
of life and all the contra dictions of
existence? But for this strange gift,
this SO strong pFeponderance of the
creative fantasy within me, might
say to thee: Come, leave everything
that ties thee, burst the bonds of
nature. -, .Sawitrii"
ION. All Hallows eve at Venice
stood on the balcony and looked into
the canals black flood; the storm and
wind ragged. My leap, my fall, would
have been unheard. should be free
from torment if I sprang. Could
with my thoughts on thee-on thy
children. =. Now I know that
I am destined to die in thy arms.
Now I know it,
His friendship with Mathildes hus-
band remained of the warmest:
Many cordial greetings to Ottoi
Tell him that love him Farewell,
my dear, noble child. Live peacefully.
sincerely, and strengthen me thereby"
Till the masters death his best his
truest friends remained the Wesen-
donks: He married again. Baireuth
became an actually I'VE never
missed the the festival of Baireuth,"
said Frau Wesendonk. How few of
the music pilgrims gathered from Eu-
ropes ends guessed the secret story
which now, less than two years after
Mathilde's death, is set down in black
and white for all the world to see.