WAGNER'S SON IS DEAD

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 112, 8 November 1930, Page 25

WAGNER'S SON IS DEAD

/;? |lS:v ; CAREER; : : IN'- - MUSIC,

British papers record the death of Siegfried Wagner, son ©f Kichard and CosimV-Wagner. He did not lopg su'rvivo his mother, who died on Ist April last. -. Siegfried Wagner was.born at Tricbschen on 6th June, 1869. His mother's birthday soott after gave the occasion for the production of' the "Siegfried Idyll,"-in "which Wagner celebrated the Jong-wished-for event of tho birth of a son.-In, giving him the namo of Siegfrted^the'parents wished to endow him with the- character of the fearless hero. He was not to go to school or be chained to a profession. ,' Nevertheless, Siegfried did study to bocomo an architect, and ho designed tho monument of his grandfather, Franz Liszt, at Bayreuth; but it was inevitable that the inheritance, from both his father and his grandfather, should assert itself, and ho soon showed aspirations for a musical career. He first conducted "Dei Eing dcs Nibclungen" at the Bayreuth Festival of 1896, and soon after himself composed an opera, which was ■ well received in Germany, more perhaps on account of his namo and antecedents' than on its own merit*. It was followed by a dozen more operas, mostly written on themes drawn from ' German folklore, but it was generally admitted that his creativo gift showed more of the ready accomplishment of his grandfather than of the genius of importance'of Siegfried Wajrner 's career (states "The Times'')

lay in the preservation ana fulfilment of his father's ideals of performance in the Featspiclhaus, exclusively devoted to the works of Biehard Wagner, at Bayreutih. It wag in 1908 that Frau Cosima Wagner handed over to her son the responsibility for the direction of the feutival. As "Begissour" of the Bayreuth Theatre, Siegfried Wagner, occupied a peculiar^ delicate position, and ' was facod with an exceptional problem. Whilo ' the greater German opera houses were vying with one another in producing new settings of Wagner's masterpieces, and giving freo rein to imaginative ideas widely different from Wagner's own, tho son had to see the works through tho father's mind, and, at the samo time, to accept new technical, methods, especially those of theatrical lighting, and bring them into harmony with what had become known as "the Bayreuth tradition." His policy was criticised from both sides, as a progressive conservatism must be, but the recent festivals have in the main proved the soundness of his judgment. His policy was justified in its results. , The festival of 1914 was cut short by tho war, and ten years elapsed before the Festspielhaus could reopen its doors. Siegfried Wagner was greatly embarrassed by tho German monetary collapse, for ha had jusfc raised a sum su ffi c j en t t 0 reopen the theatre when the mark sensationally declined in value.