New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-04-15


Both the author and the translator of
this entertaining contribution TO wagner
literature have carefully refrained from
mentioning anywhere In its pages the
| wear In which this visit to Triebschen
was paid. an omission that can, however,
readily be remedied from the context.
| Mile. Gautier was Wagner's invited
guest early in 1869, for she found him
at work on the third act Of "Siegfried,
and the Biilow divorce was as yet only
under discussion, the Able List Off
cially opposing 1t, qua able, whlle
secretly giving IT his sanction In his
quality Of loving father and liberal man
of-the-world. Still further. to fix the
time with exactitude. we have in the
later pages Of the book a piquant &C
count of the cabal against "Rheingold'
at Munich.
Mile. Gautier was one Of company OF
French Wagner enthusiasts. whose num-
Der and membership she does not give,
| merely mentioning that Villiers de Ilsle-
Adam was one of them. Travelling as
pilgrims to the shrine. they yet Incl
dentally Jared forth to look for copy a
fact manifestly not understood by Wag-
ner. although his correspondence with
the daughter of Theophile had originated
| in his appreciation of her defence of his
music against an attack upon it made
| by Ernest Reyer. Elsewhere in the
book Mile. Gautier reprints her father
article in the journal Official" on the
first performance Of "Rienzi'' in Paris,
the tumult over which he compared with
the romanticist battle for Herman In
1890
There were enthusiasts in those days
| fully as energetic and persistent as the
stupid, powerful Instructors and de-
| tractors Of genius. The author recalls
in her opening pages the difficulties OF
the Wagner propaganda in Paris, the
1 barbaric scenes Of tumult at Pasdeloup' S
concerts. On the night Of its arrival in
Lucerne the party heard an Invisible
boatman singing the sailors song from
THE Flying Dutchman" on the Rhine.
1t was the first time, Mile. Gautier In
| forms us, that they were able to listen
with untroubled enjoyment to passage
from the master! In Paris they had al
ways been in a state Of feverish excite
ment and apprehension. Of readiness to
pounce upon the interrupters. And their
hero worship. Wagner was 10 these
French pilgrims
as inaccessible as Jupiter on the heights
OF olympus or Jeh T behind the NAMING mi
sort art' Of sacred terror. Homer
4Eschylus. Dante, Goethe, Beethoven, We
named them all Even the divine shake
speare failed to make us hesitate. To us
4 the name of Wagner famed higher. He
| was Orpheus and Apollo both. blended 70
| one Tyre. Poet, musician. philosophy
what, indeed, was he not this latest conner!
No wonder that Wagner warned Mile.
Gautier in jest. You must not be too
enthusiastic" he said to her. "or your
health will suffer" STILL she makes II
plain that in the face of so much igno-
rance, misunderstanding and malice the
| homage was not unwelcome to the mas
ter. Lucerne. by the way, was certain
Of the identity Of these S0i-diSdnt French
visitors: Viliers dc IIsle-Adam was
King Ludwig incognlto; Mile. Gautier
! Adelina Patti, come 10 study part in
| one OF Wagner's operas under the mas
ters own guidance. The attitude OF
worship Is maintained throughout by
Mile Gautier in her pictures Of the daily
Vie at the villa, and she blends with 1t
sincere admiration and affection for
Frau Cosima and her undivided devo-
ton to the man and his work. Coslma.
so she told the visitor, had been at one
time the daily recipient OF four or five
anonymous letters denouncing her as a
Prussian spy and threatening her with
death, while Mile. Gautier and her party
we're honored with similar attentions
during their stay in Munich awaiting the
promised first performance of "Rhein-
gold" F,,u Cosima told the visitor
much of Wagner's struggles. and enlisted
her sympathies and pen in the service
of the Bayreuth playhouse project. We
have gimpses, also, Of Wagner climbing
fr tree on the unaccountable impulse
OF a moment. and again climbing, by
| the aid Of shutters. mouldings and pro-
iections. to the balcony of the first story
of Triebschen, whence he jumped down
to the ground all this in order to fur
nish a counter irritant for a fright which
| he had unwittingly given his wife.
In Munich Mile. Gautier met Richter
I of narioI bat
her interest was centred in List still
more in the alteration of women that
| followed him wherever he went. More
romantic still. the Countess Muchanoff
was present, too: she in whose praise
Theophile Gautier had written burning
verses before LISTS genius charmed her
Russian temperament. Alfred de Mus
set had also been fervent admrer OF
hers. and Heine had paraphrased for her
tho verses Of Gautier. The two women
were, Of course, frankly interested in
each other The author as "A matter Of
course, Is a worshipper also of Wagner's
royal protector, and gives, Wagner's own
version Of the rupture of Ludwig's en-
gagement to his cousin:
! one evening when Tristan was being
given at the Royal Theatre. the prospective
/ bride appeared in a box in an unceremoni-
1 Gus toilet She listened to the work with
an absent air and without attempting 20
! disguise the fact that she was bored She
was not Wagnerian in her tastes. The
discovery abruptly broke the spell. The
King Judged that a person who shared 50
| little In his faith and his enthusiasm ought
/ not TO be his wife. and he closed h9 heart
against her.
This is, we believe. a little known YER
/ sion Of an incident In the life OF the Mad