[Munich, Spring 1865.] Lady-friend, The Tristan will be wonderful. Will you come ? ? Your 1st performance 15th May. R. W. t Dr. Golther tells us " the letter does not exist," evidently considering that the reference is to the enigmatic " Brief an * * * " in Frau Wesendonck's list (vid. inf.) ; but I am inclined to think that this " noch einen alten Brief" is figurative (probably also the "Christmas present'') — an indirect appeal for renewal of old friendship. — Tr. 330 WAGNER TO MATHILDE WESENDONCK. [No one from Zurich came to hear Tristan {see the letter of next September to Frau Wille), the first public performance of which had eventually to be postponed to the 10th of fune owing to " Isolde's " indisposition. A few weeks afterwards, however, Wagner extends an olive-bough to Otto, in the shape of a beautiful epistle, one passage wherein has so often been misinterpreted that it will be as well to give a somewhat closer rendering than heretofore : — " The disturbance that drove me from you six years back should have been avoided : it so estranged my life from me, that you yourself, as I, did not really know me again when I last approached you once more. This [latter] pain should also have been spared me : to myself it seemed as if it might have been possible, and beautiful, very beautiful would it have been, ay, sublime, if it had been spared me, — but one must not ask for the sublime, — and I was wrong. — Now much has altered with me. Everything around me has become fairly new" etc. (Letters to Otto). Here the " ich hatte Unrecht " (" / was wrong") most clearly refers, not to the "Storung, die mich vor sechs Jahren von Ihnen trieb " — which, by the way, should be " seven " if it does not actually refer to the unlucky Paris expedition — but to the estrangement which commenced in the winter 1863-64. From the time of the said letter and its reply, July -August 1865, friendly relations with Herr Wesendonck were reestablished, and we find letters sent to him at not unfrequent intervals down to the end of 18 70. The only one to Frau Mathilde still extant is the next and last of our series, though the sweet lady's own simple words of 1896 should be recalled here : " After his second marriage * Wagner's first visit with his wife was paid to ' Mariafeld' near Zurich and to the ' Green Hill' at Enge. The Festivals at Bayreuth we never missed. Down to the master's death we remained in friendly commune with him" — Tr.]
Richard Wagner
Source: Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck, translated by Ellis, No. 147