RICHARD WAGNER.

Evening Star, Issue 14626, 24 July 1911, Page 6

RICHARD WAGNER.

HIS PRIVATE LIFE. No recent book lias made such a stir in musical circles as Wagner's autobiography, lately published both in the original German and in an English ti-anslation. In his will Wagner directed that publication be delayed for a. (specified time after his death, and in conformity with these instructions it now appears. Most of tho critics have dealt with the musical side of this interesting volume. But the reviewer of one Australian paper devotes the bulk of his notice to another aspect altogether, and a much less pleasant one. 'He says : " Wagner's autobiography is a very unlovely picture of vanity and selfishness, which one would have been disposed to regard as grossly tdanderous if anyone but himself had painted it. He shows no consideration for anyone but himself. He lived upon money borrowed from anyone who would lend it hhn; he is pained and surprised if he meets with a refusal, and is righteously indignant that his landlord wants his rent, <md that th* tradesfolk will not give him unlimited credit. He is full of jealousy and suspicion, and lie imagines that everyone is jealous of him. He evidently believes himself to be quite irresistible by the other sex, and all tho young ladies he meete fall in love with him at eight. All this might easily be passed by with a smile; but his treatment of the •unfortunate woman who was foolish enough to marry him is so unspeakably mean and contemptible that no excuse can be tolerated for it. It is not what ho did. but what he here, in cold blood, says about it that is eo repulsive. The world has always been kind to the artist in respect of lu> love affairs. It has recognised that the very temperament that makes him an artist exposes him to special temptation from his side, and that the nerve-exhausting character of hifi work leaves him less able to resist. Wagner's marriage with Minna Planer was, of course, a bad mistake; and he may be forgiven for having found it so and for finally getting it annulled. His escapades with Sirs Jessie L-aussot. with whom ho ar« ranged to dope from Bordeaux, and Madame Wesendonck. whose husband's generosity he to cynically abused, and Madame Willen, and Fredenke Meyer, inter aliaslet them all be credited to the susceptibility of the artistic temperament: and let his faithfulness to Gosimn Von Bulow atone for his having deliberately made love to the wife of liis friend and the daughter of his i-taunobest supporter, the Abbe Liszt. Hut when we see him deliberately dictating io her successful rival every detail that he can remember to the discredit of the wife who stood rta.uncnly b" him. through all the struggle*? an! privations of hifi earlier life, and meic'rsriy dragging into the light of publicity every real ..,» suspected infidelity of which she had. :r, his opinion, 'been guilty: when » eak.ot her as outraging hi* "greater deiuacy and annoving him" by her "economical ideas'."' whilst she \v.':s actually pawning hoi wedding presents to provide him with food and lodging, we feel that tho .umt <-f forbearance ha* been passed, and that no eoiiidJeration of his artistic greitnoss c.u restiain us from denouncing him as a <ad and a ioivai.l. It may pe-rnins bo .'awl that the public La.= nothing U. do v.itii (!:c arum's r.-rivai.e life, and must jinLe cm wholly hv his art- works: and with that position w fully agree. 15lit it is not the public that has- sought out these unsavt.Tv details and exposed -hem i. > the ugh; -t dav; it is Wa-m-r himself vl, n M-t M tin down and ai ranged l«r ,>ir pi.-blV.rtrf*. ]( is a pitv that hi.- executors, if they had ■ my ~|H W i :; rite matter, did net >r, press ; ,lf rhe references to Wagner's _:*,aUoiis wilt, his own and other people's wives, r.id „; V( , to the world only that part o- the ■luH-.lio-r.WiV which relates : r- his r.-agm-Heert anl'm-roh stiuggie, aga:.tst poverty ;';']*l prejudice and \«a«i i r ,jt „- v ,-!.-:( '.,e 7'P'-ardei\ and whet ;]1 tr.'i ; vol '-, -'., 0 -,- ,s ~:.;,'. ,;s xhr \igh*..t ;Mtu.iic