"Perhaps you do not know," said she, "that Wagner was condemned to
death in Saxony, for having taken part in the revolution of '49. As he
fled, in company with others, he owed his escape to a singular chance.
In a village near the frontier, his companions were seized, but they
did not see Wagner, who was asleep in an out-of-the-way corner of the
hall of the inn."
"Wagner condemned to death!"
"It is incredible, is it not? But you must not imagine that he was a
very fierce democrat. He was occupied only with questions of art, and,
like Walther of the _Meistersinger_, he was chiefly in revolt against
the tyranny of routine. He sincerely believed that a political upheaval
would lead to an artistic reform; he has paid for that error by twelve
years of exile. Defeated as the insurrection was, he still clung to the
illusion that better times would surely come for his country and for
art. So then it was that, alone, cut off from the world, with nothing
to live for, he conceived, in view of those better times, the plan of
his tetralogy, of a great national drama, which should make to live
before the regenerated German people the gods and heroes of ancient
Germanic mythology. Years passed; the better times never came, and the
life of the exile grew more and more bitter. Yet, beyond any doubt,
Richard Wagner became a celebrated and popular composer throughout
all Germany. Thanks to the intervention of my father, _Tannhäuser_
and _Lohengrin_ had been given in Weimar, and also in other capital
cities. The exigencies of his life would not permit of his disdaining
the situation which now offered itself. The Master was aware that he
would have to come down from the heights of his dream and follow this
more accessible path which opened before him. In 1857, therefore, he
interrupted the composition of the Ring of the Nibelungen, of which the
_Rheingold_, the _Valkyrie_ and two acts of _Siegfried_ were completed."
"What! was he already so far advanced in that tremendous work?"
"Yes. And then Wagner performed another miracle: he composed _Tristan
and Isolde_! When the amnesty was finally granted to him, he went back
to Germany. He saw what was happening there with regard to matters of
art, and that he could not dream of producing his tetralogy. However,
he published the poems from it, preceded by a preface wherein he
pointed out in a supremely able way the steps that ought to be taken to
attain to the creation of a great National Art. Then he applied himself
to the composition of his _Meistersinger_. When the King of Bavaria
summoned Wagner, he had read this preface, and the first thing he said
to him was, 'Finish your Nibelungen. I feel that I am called to help
you realise your vision.'
"And so it was decided to build a theatre that should be absolutely
independent of daily representations and of change of programme. A
theatre the opening of which, occurring only once a year, should be
an artistic consecration. But what architect would be capable of
constructing this monument according to the ideas of the Master? None
other than Semper, the designer of the Dresden Museum and theatre,
an artist of the first rank, whose talents were unquestioned. The
King gave him the command to draw up the plans. Just at this time
a formidable intrigue was organised, which revealed itself in a
succession of spiteful acts, outrages, and furious onslaughts against
him whose only dream was to endow his country with a superior art.
This reached such a point that Wagner, fearing for his royal friend,
withdrew from Munich. But Ludwig II. would not let go his prize. He
banished the principal promoters of these villainies, among others the
Minister Pforten, to a distance; and the negotiations with Semper on
the subject of the theatre were continued.
"The enemies were conquered only in appearance. They broke loose again
and, after an exhausting struggle, too long to recount, it was found
necessary to give up the building of the theatre. Once more Wagner
retired. He came to Tribschen, and again took up his interrupted work,
after an interval of ten years.
"The King only asks of him the completion of this tetralogy, and it is
his wish to produce the different parts of it, from year to year, in
his own theatre, since the foolishness and malignity of those about
him will not allow of the carrying out of Semper's plans. But Wagner
has sworn that he will not be present at any of these fragmentary
representations of his work. He considers himself as virtually exiled
from Bavaria. So, for the second time, Destiny has reserved for him the
trial of not being present at the performances of his own works, and of
not hearing the resounding music of his immense orchestra. That is the
fate imposed upon him to-day, by his artistic conscience.
"There, dear friend, is the history of the defeat of a man of genius by
a horde of envious imbeciles. I am sure that Wagner will be glad if you
reestablish the truth about this affair which has been so abominably
misrepresented.
"And now let us hurry down. They have probably already noticed our
absence."
[Illustration: MADAME COSIMA WAGNER.]