Wagner’s second source of inspiration was Matilde Wesendonck, the wife and poet of the silk merchant Otto von Wezendonck. She was also the protagonist of a love letter Mina discovered.
Agnes Mathilde Luckmeyer was born in 1828 in Elberfeld, Germany. In 1848, when she was 20, she married a silk merchant named Otto Wesendonck.
Wagner and the Wesendoncks first met in Zurich in 1852. Mathilde’s husband Otto was a big fan of Wagner’s music and supported him by setting up a small villa on his land.
However, Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) fell for Matilde by 1857. It is not known to what extent she accepted his affection, but Matilde did not intend to put her marriage in danger because of Wagner.
1. Mrs. Matilde Wesendonck, Wagner’s lover
Therefore, with the intention that her relationship with Wagner did not require her husband to care, she continued to inform her husband of the fact and purpose of meeting with Wagner.
Nevertheless, this act of affection led Wagner to start working on “Tristan and Isolde,” where he wrote the love story of a Tristan knight and his wife Isolde.
This uncomfortable act of affection came to an end in 1858 when Mina saw a letter from Wagner to Matilde.
The relationship between Wagner and Matilde Wesendonck, especially what it was like rationally, remains a question that piques the curiosity of those who study Wagner.
Minna thought Wagner had been seduced by Mathilde, and in a subsequent letter she was explicitly pressed on Wagner, describing her as “that dirty woman.”
Due to the extreme stress of Wagner’s love affair, Minna developed heart disease, which caused difficulties between Wagner and Mathilde. And it would have been difficult for Wagner to stay in the villa that Mathilde’s husband, Otto, provided.
Wagner eventually left Zurich for Venice. Mathilde later wrote about Wagner’s stay in Zurich in her autobiographical memoir, but did not mention his problems with Minna.
Around that time, Wagner had another act of affection, this time Kojima von Bulow, wife of Hans von Bulow, Wagner’s greatest benefactor and conductor of the premiere of “Tristan”.
2. Wagner’s continuous encounter with a married woman, Cosima Böllo
Francesca Gaetana Cosima (1837–1930) was an illegitimate son born to musician Franz Liszt and married Marie d’Agoult, 24 years younger than Wagner.
Liszt, the same musician, was close to Wagner, but his daughter was extremely reluctant to meet him.
Nevertheless, in April 1865, Cosima gave birth to Wagner’s illegitimate child, and named him Isolde. Wagner also attended Isolde’s Catholic baptism.
The two men’s inappropriate acts of affection were scandalous in Munich and, to make matters worse, they became pointed fingers among the royal court members of Munich, who doubted Wagner’s influence over the king.
Cosima demanded a divorce from her husband in October 1868. Hans von Bulow never agreed to this at first, but Cosima persistently persuaded him and eventually divorced in July 1870.
After his divorce, Hans von Bulow kept a distance between Wagner and Cosima, and he also cut off financial sponsorship to no longer have a relationship with Wagner.
Wagner and Cosima got married a month after the divorce of Hans von Büllo and Cosima was finalized in court. Wagner did not announce the wedding in advance, only announcing the wedding in a newspaper later.
As a result, Cosima became Wagner’s second wife, and Cosima’s mother, Marie Dagu, who opposed his meeting with Wagner as much as Liszt, was shocked. It appears that Cosima also had a bad feeling about her mother because Marie Dagu criticized her daughter’s behavior.
Kosima was in Berlin when she heard of Marie d’Agu’s death in March 1876, but did not attend the funeral.
Afterwards, Kosima reportedly expressed her feelings in a letter to her daughter Daniela, saying, “There is nothing left for me to do except grieve for the woman who made me born in the world.” Her opposition to her mother, Marie Dagu, was heartbreaking.
Cosima, along with Wagner, helped Wagner with his musical activities by establishing Germany’s Bayreuth Festival as a showcase for Wagner’s stage works.
After Wagner’s death, Kosima devoted the rest of his life to promoting his music and philosophy. Later, music critics credited Kosima with being a major inspiration for Wagner’s later works, especially the Parzipal.
Wagner left a bad image for later generations because of anti-Semitism and Hitler’s use of his music as music for Nazism.
However, Wagner wanted to have a theater with artistic control for his own music. Wagner is one of the representative musicians of Germany, famous for creating the Bayreuth Festival, a music festival for the German people.
In 1870, Wagner announced that he would create and festival the first Bayreuth Theater in 1873, following Kosima’s advice.
In 1874, the entire project was on the verge of collapse, but with the help of the king, the theater was completed in 1875, and the festival was successfully completed from August 13 to 30 of the following year.
After the festival, Wagner and Kosima left for Venice with their children, where they stayed until December, but the festival brings a huge financial deficit for Wagner.
His marriage to Kosima lasted until the end of Wagner’s life, and they had a daughter, Eva, and a son, Siegfried.
After the death of her husband, Wagner, Kosima continued to arrange the Bayreuth Music Festival until 1906, working on the reproduction of the work.
It was also her intention to limit the performance to “The Wandering Dutch”. Kosima left a long influence on the German music industry even after handing over the place to her son Siekfried to arrange the festival.
