|
Richard Wagner, My Life. Translated by Andrew Gay.
Edited by Mary Whittall. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1983).
pp. 734-35 [1864]: "In his great
anxiety to cover up my departure, Standhartner had me
come to dine at his house, where my servant Franz Mrazek
brought me my luggage. I bade a very distressed farewell to
him, his wife Anna [sic], as well as my good dog Pohl.
Standhartner's stepson Karl Schönaich,
who wept from grief, and Cornelius, who by contrast was in a
frivolous mood, accompanied me to the station, where I
departed on the afternoon of March 23rd, to go first of all
to Munich, where I hoped to be completely unnoticed and have
a chance to recuperate for two days from the frightful
strain of the recent past."
|
|
Letter of Josef Standthartner to Richard Wagner,
August 18, 1871. Richard-Wagner-Museum, Bayreuth. IV A
32-3:
"Beloved Friend: Since a few days I am
recovering from a terribly painful ear infection that forced
me for the last 5 weeks to total rest. I am so far recovered
that I will leave tomorrow for the mountains, where I hope
with rest and the better air to regain the use of my right
ear. Until now the sounds in my right ear remined me of the
waterfall in Freischütz.
...
"....Please send list of royalties to Vienna to my name,
without adding a letter, at the Address:
Dr. Carl Schönaich, Wien,
Garnisongasse 3.
If I should need money during my travel, I can thus get
it through Carl.
....
"One thing I sincerely hope, that you will never believe,
that my love and admiration for you will ever change. It is
for me a blessing for all times that I can be close to you
and always will be. The memories of our closeness were often
a great support to me in difficult times. In our family you
are like a God, and with us there is only one infallible
person and that is R. Wagner. It would amuse you to hear how
often I play Lohengrin alone and as reward Meistersinger, or
sing Walküre. Before I became sick, I heard H. Natke,
an enthusiastic admirer of you, say: 'What a new world he
shows us!' At the end I had great success with Wotan's
Farewell."
|
|
Cosima Wagner's Diaries. Vol. I: 1869-1877. Edited
and annotated by Martin Gregor-Dellin and Dietrich Mack.
Translated and with an Introduction by Geoffrey Skelton.
(New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978).
Tuesday, May 6, 1873: "Returning from
my morning walk, I find R. in deep grief; he had received a
letter from our friend Dr. Standhartner, had opened
it with a smile, for the excellent man does not usually
write to him, and discovered in it the news of the death of
[Karl Schönaich] his eldest [sic] son, the sole
aid of our dear friend! The same thing happened years ago,
when likewise after a long silence he wrote to announce the
death of his daughter [Wilhelminna Schönaich].
In his hour of sorrow he always thinks first of R.---this
man of few words feels the need to talk to him. We are
deeply upset---I am reminded of the words R. once said to
me: 'The death of one of our children would mean my death.'
On this day only genius could raise our spirits; for some
reason I do not know, R. quoted from Don Quixote the
frequently recurring phrase 'Either I know nothing of
adventures or---' and we have to laugh heartily over this
pedantic preface. R. declares that nobody can laugh with him
as I can---yet at the same time we are so sad, and my tears
will not cease."
|
|
|