Eva Rieger 
Minna Wagner 
A Life, with Richard Wagner

This biography of Minna Planer, Richard Wagner’s wife of 30 years, reveals her as a self-assured woman and artist who was vital to her husband’s creative life.


When Richard Wagner first met Minna Planer in 1834, he was an unknown conductor, she a popular actress. His hectic pursuit of her affections culminated in marriage in 1836. Minna endured poverty with him, nursed him through chronic illness, followed him across Europe as he fled from creditors and pursued his artistic goals, and sought to provide him with the stable domestic and erotic life that he craved. He played his works to her as he wrote them, up to
Tannhäuser and
Lohengrin, and set store by her opinions. But when he went on the run as a wanted revolutionary, Minna only reluctantly followed him into Swiss exile.


Domestic peace tentatively prevailed, but was ultimately destroyed by Wagner’s passion for Mathilde Wesendonck. In 1858, he and Minna separated, she returned home to Germany, and subsequent efforts at reconciliation proved ultimately impossible. They remained married, however, until Minna’s death in 1866.


Despite having been at Richard’s side as he matured into the composer of the
Ring and
Tristan, Minna has been given short shrift by most Wagner commentators. In Eva Rieger’s acclaimed biography, translated into English by Chris Walton, the author reveals Minna as a self-assured woman and artist who played a crucial role in the creative life of her husband.

Daftar Isi

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Notes on this translation

Introduction: ‘He could not breathe without her’

Chapter 1. ‘I have become her despot’: From Love to Marriage

Chapter 2. ‘Deprived of incipient motherhood’: Riga, London, Paris, 1836-1842

Chapter 3. ‘Home for me is you alone’: Dresden 1842-1847

Chapter 4. ‘My knucklehead of a husband’: Revolution and Its Aftermath, 1848-1850

Chapter 5. ‘This ridiculous, amorous intrigue’: The Jessie Laussot Affair, 1850-1851

Chapter 6. ‘That good, foolish man…’: Exile in Zurich, 1852-1854

Chapter 7. ‘I’m a poor, stupid woman to have let you go…’: Zurich and London, 1854-1856

Chapter 8. ‘Alas, now all our happiness is gone…’: The Wesendonck Scandal, 1857-1858

Chapter 9. The Bitter End: 1858-1859

Chapter 10. ‘In love and fidelity, your Emma’: Emma Herwegh

Chapter 11. ‘…neither wife, housekeeper, nor friend’: Dresden, Paris, Biebrich, 1860-1862

Chapter 12. ‘That weak, blind man…’: The end of a marriage, 1863-1866

References

Index

Tentang Penulis

Chris Walton studied at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Zurich and Munich. He was head of the Music Department of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich for ten years before being appointed chair of music at the University of Pretoria. He moved back to Switzerland in 2008 and lives today in Solothurn. He is an Honorary Professor at Africa Open Institute (Stellenbosch University) and runs two research projects at the Bern University of the Arts for the Swiss National Science Foundation. He has published widely on Austro-German and Swiss music.