This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Personal Re QOllections of Wagner BY ANGELO NEUMANN Translated from the Fourth German Edition BY EDITH LIVERMORE CONTENTS PART I ABROAD CHAPTER PAGE I. VIENNA 3 II. LEIPSIC 15 III-BAYREUTH, 1876 19 IV. AH ATTEMPT AND A FAILURE 24 PART II THE RING IN LEIPSIO V-A NEW CONNECTION 5 VL RlIINEGOLD AND THE VALKYRE 68 VIL SIEGFRIED AND 4 G5TTERDAMMERUNG ... 81 VIII. PREPARATIONS FOR TRISTAN 101 PART III BERLIN IX. RICHARD WAGNER AND BOTHO VON Htx. 8EN . 109 X. ORGANISATION AND REORGANISATION . . . 123 XI. THE NlBELtTNGBN IN BERLIN 188 XII. THB NIBELTJNGEN IN BERLIN OONTINTDBJD, . 166 ill iv CONTENTS PART IV HOPES AND PLAK8 CHAPTER XIII. FRIENDS AGAIN PAGK 177 XIV. PARIS AND LITTLE PARIS ... XV. LONDON . ... 210 XVI. PARSIFAL . PART V THE RICHARD WAGNER THEATRE XVII. GERMANY, HOLLAND AND BELGIUM Oi1 XVIII. ITALY - - l TTTV A 280 A. IA. AUSTRIA XX. RUSSIA, 309 ILLUSTEATIONS RICHARD WAGNER . . . frontispiece Bust by Anton zur Strassen in the foyer of the Leipsic Stadttheater. ANGELO NEUMANN ... 54 Prom a picture in the Ktlnstlerzimmer of the Leipsic Stadttheater. ANTON SEIDL ...... 104 Bas-relief by Winifred Holt of New York. Replica commissioned by Herr Direktor Neumann. HEDWIG REXCHER-KINDERMANN . . .206 FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM WAGNER TO NEU MANN, RECEIVED AFTER THE NEWS OF NERS DEATH ..... 269 PART I ABROAD PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF WAGNER CHAPTER I IT was the celebrated singing teacher of those days, Therese Stilke-Sessi of Vienna, who gave me my first introduction to the genius of Richard Wagner and fired me with an early enthusiasm for his new and wonderful style. This remarkable woman was training nae for the stage and taught me among other things the part of Wol fram von Eschenbach inTannhauser. I mention this particularly as in those years the early forties it was rare indeed to find a singer with this rOle in his reper toire, and managers then found it most difficult to cast this important part. Being young and impressionable, I soon became an ardent disciple of the Master, yet even I at this time, in spite of my devotion to the cause, found it utterly im possible one night to sit through an entire performance of The Flying Dutchman given at the Royal Opera in Vienna under exceptionally favourable circumstances, I frankly confess that I left, thoroughly bored with that long duet, at the close of the second act. I was then a mere boy of nineteen, however, and my judgment could hardly have been considered quite sound. The cast that evening was a memorable one and worthy to be recorded Senta, Louise Dustmann Mary, . 4 ABROAD Caroline Bettelheim Daland, Karl Mayerhofer Erik, Gustav Walter. John Nepomuk Beck sang the Plying Dutchman, and the conductor was Heinrich Esser. In the yea 1862, after engagements in Pressburg and Dantzic, I myself became a member of the Royal Opera Company in Vienna, and this very year Richard Wagner began his career in that city. He was presenting his Tristan, which after forty-seven preliminary rehearsals was finally set aside as utterly impracticable for the stage At the same time, however, he was striving to interest the Viennese in his works by giving those wonderful con certs in their great theatre. He then lived at the Hotel Kaiserin Elizabeth, and as my rooms were in that same quarter, it often chanced that I met him on the street going to and from rehearsals, generally talking to him self, and usually flourishing his great redbandanna The Masters hair was brown in those days, and he invariably wore a high silk hat and a long frock coat never by any chance buttoned up. His presence brought life and swing into the artist world of Vienna, and the question of the hour was, Do we, or do we not, approve of these innovations I my self together with most of the younger musicians was a most enthusiastic partisan of the Master, and took a gleeful share in his triumphs at those concerts...

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone