Phædra, Isabella (Bride of Messina), Maid of Orleans, Hermione, Medea, Sappho, etc. In 1870–71, at the request of Grafinn von Roon, wife of the Minister for War, she joined the Red Cross Society, and spent nine months in tending the wounded in the State Hospitals at Berlin. In 1872 she took leave of the stage as Iphigenia, amidst many honours; the Emperor in person presenting her with the Gold Medal for Arts and Sciences. Meantime her voice had returned to a great extent, and on May 22, 1872, at her uncle's request, she went to Bayreuth, to take part in the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which he gave to celebrate the laying of the first stone to his theatre there. She sang the solo alto part, as she had done on Palm Sunday twenty-six years before, at his performance of the same Symphony at Dresden. In 1876, at the opening at [App. p.814 "for at read of"] the Wagner Theatre at Bayreuth, she took the minor parts of Walküre and Norn [App. p.814 "for Walküure and Norn read Schwertleite and First Norn"], only regretting she was not able to serve her uncle in a greater part.
However, in 1882 a new sphere of artistic usefulness was opened to her. Baron von Perfall, Intendant of the Royal Opera at Munich, offered her the Professorship of Dramatic Singing, in the Royal School of Music there. This appointment she accepted (to quote her own words) 'in the hope of training young artists in the spirit and traditions of her uncle, to be worthy interpreters of his works.'
WAGNER, Wilhelm Richard, born May 22, 1813, at Leipzig; died Feb. 13, 1883, at Venice; interred Feb. 18, 1883, at Bayreuth.
The materials of the following article have been thus arranged: I. Biographical, personal. II. Literary. III. Musical. IV. Chronological Lists.
I. Wagner's ancestors were natives of Saxony fairly well educated and fairly well to do. The grandfather, Gottlob Friedrich Wagner, who died in 1795, was Accisassistent, and later on Kurfürstlich Sächsischer Generalaccisemnehmer (Receiver-general of excise), in plain words Thorschreiber (clerk at the town-gates of Leipzig); he married in 1769 Johanna Sophia Eichel daughter of Gottlob Friedrich Eichel, Schulhalter (keeper of a school). Of their children, two sons and a daughter, the eldest son, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner, born 1770 at Leipzig was the father of the poet-composer. He is described as Actuarius bei den Stadtgerichten (clerk to the city police-courts); a ready linguist; whose command of French stood him in good stead during the occupation of Leipzig, when Davoust made him chief of police; fond of poetry, and of theatricals, in which he occasionally took an active part—as, for instance, in the private performance of Goethe's 'Die Mitschuldigen,' given by Leipzig dilettanti in Thomé's house, near the famous Auerbach's Keller, facing the Marktplatz. He married in 1798 Johanna Rosina Bertz (born at Weissenfels, died Feb 1848), by whom between 1799 and 1811 [App. p.814 "1813"] he had nine children.
- Albert Wagner, 1709–1874, studied medicine at the University of Leipzig; actor and singer at Würzburg and Dresden; finally stage manager at Berlin; father of Johanna Jachmann-Wagner the wellknown singer.
- Carl Gustav Wagner, 1801, died early.
- Johanna Rosalie Wagner, distinguished actress (Frau Dr. Gotthard Oswald Marbach), 1803–1837.
- Carl Julius Wagner, 1804, became a goldsmith, died at Dresden.
- Luise Constanze Wagner (Frau Friedrich Brockhaus), 1805–1870.
- Clara Wilhelmine Wagner (Frau Wolfram), a singer, 1807–1875.
- Maria Theresia Wagner 1809, died 1814.
- Wilhelmine Ottilie Wagner (Frau Professor Hermann Brockhausr[1]), 1811–1883.
- Wilhelm Richard Wagner, May 22, 1813.
The last of these dates[2] is inscribed on a white marble slab between the first and second stories of a quaint old house, Der weisse und rothe Löwe, in the Brühl at Leipzig, now No. 88, where the poet-composer was born. After the battle of Leipzig, October 16, 18, and 19, 1813, an epidemic fever, attributed to the carnage, fell upon the town, and just five months after Richard's birth, on November 22, the 'Herr Actuarius' died of it. His widow was left in sad straits. The eldest son was but 14; she had no private means, and her pension was small. In 1815 she became the wife of Ludwig Geyer (born January 21, 1780, at Eisleben), actor, playwright, and amateur portrait-painter. He had formerly been a member of 'Seconda's troupe,' which used to give theatrical performances alternately at Dresden and Leipzig. At the time of the marriage he was a member of the Königl.-Sächs-Hoftheater, and accordingly the family removed to Dresden.[3] Richard Wagner frequently spoke of him with affectionate reverence, treasured his portrait by the side of that of his mother, and was delighted at the surprise performance of one of Geyer's little plays, 'Der Bethlehemitische Kindermord,' which waa privately got up at Bayreuth in celebration of his 60th birthday, 1873. 'My schoolbooks at the Dresden Kreuzschule,' Wagner said to the writer, 'were marked Richard Geyer, and I was entered under that name.'
Geyer[4] wanted to make a painter of me, but I was very unhandy at drawing; I had learnt to play 'Ueb' immer Treu und Redlichkeit' and the 'Jungfernkranz' (Freyschütz) which was then quite new. The day before his death (30th Sept., 1821) I had to play these to him in an adjoining room, and I heard him faintly saying to my mother, 'Do you think he might have a gift for music?'
In Dec. 1822 (æt. 9) Richard had begun to attend the Kreuzschule, a 'classical school.' He did well there, and became the favourite of Herr Sillig, the professor of Greek, to whose delight (set. 13) he translated the first twelve books of the Odyssey out of school hours. His progress in Latin
- ↑ Hermann Brockhaus, the well-known orientalist and translator of Soma-deva, etc.
- ↑ At Wagner's birth Beethoven was 42 years old, Spohr 29, Weber 27, Marschner 17, Spontini 38, Rossini 21, Auber 29, Meyerbeer 22, Bellini 11, Berlioz 10, Mendelssohn and Chopin 4, Schumann 3, Liszt 2.
- ↑ There was also a child of the second marriage. Caecilie Geyer, who appears as Frau Avenarius in Wagner's correspondence.
- ↑ Autobiographische Skizze, 1842.
