Re: When was Wagner at his most suicidal?

On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 10:00:22 -0800, Cruz Tijerina wrote:

> I stand corrected you are absolutely right. Minna was still alive
> although she hardly had any contact with Richard. You did not answer my
> question though... do you think that is when he was at his most
> suicidal?
> 
> 
I am not sure that Wagner ever was suicidal.  Certainly he mentions a
desire for death many times in his letters, especially in those written to
Franz Liszt and Mathilde Wesendonk respectively.  It is possible that in
his worst despair he contemplated suicide but it is most likely that these
thoughts would soon be dismissed.  He was of course a disciple of
Schopenhauer, who had taught that suicide was the ultimate assertion of
the will and therefore no kind of solution at all.

Wagner's situation and state of mind during the spring of 1864 have been
described by those friends who supported him, emotionally and financially,
during the darkness before dawn.

After the attempted reconciliation with Minna -- the "ten days of hell" --
and with the growing financial crisis that Wagner faced in 1864, he was in
dire straits, not least emotionally.  Wagner fled from his creditors in
Vienna, for the second time in his life fearing imprisonment for debt, and
took refuge with his friend the novelist Eliza Wille at Mariafeld.  Her
account of his visit can be found in her, "Erinnerungen an Wagner", in the
chapter headed "Wagner bei Uns"; part of which has been translated into
English by Stewart Spencer and appears in his "Wagner Remembered", pages
154-8.  Although Wagner spoke to Frau Wille of his misery, there is no
indication that he was suicidal.

When the bills began to catch up with him, Wagner left Mariafeld and to
meet up with Wendelin Weissheimer in Stuttgart.  Weissheimer's account of
this period can also be found in "Wagner Remembered", pages 158-162. He
describes how Wagner wanted to Weissheimer to accompany him into hiding in
the mountains, where they both could work without being disturbed by
Wagner's creditors, and of course where Weissheimer could pay for their
food and lodging.  The account ends with the arrival of the secretary to
King Ludwig, bringing a diamond ring, a portrait of the king, and an end
to Wagner's financial predicament.

-- 
Derrick Everett   (deverett at c2i.net)
==== Writing from  59°54'N 10°36'E ====
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