SIEGFRIED WAGNER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20668, 13 September 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

SIEGFRIED WAGNER.

DEATH AT BAYREUTH.

With the death of Siegfried Wagner, which ocurred at Bayreuth on August 4, the great name of Wagner passes out of existence. Siegfried was the only son of the great Richard Wagner, and through his mother, Cosima Wagner, who died just fivo months ago, ho.was a grandson of Liszt. Since tho conclusion of the Great War, Siegfried Wagner had devoted himself almost entirely to tho Bayreuth Festival, and it was the strain of rehearsing for this year's festival which caused the nervous breakdown from which he died.

Siegfried was born in Juno, 1869, at Triebeschen, near Lucerne, and studied originally for the profession of architecture at Charlottenburg and Karlsruhe. He designed the mausoleum of his grandfather, Liszt, at Bayreuth, but soon gave up architecture for music, and worked under Ilumperdinck and Julius Knieso. In 1894 ho became assistant conductor at Bayreuth, and in 1896, conductor. In 1912 he conducted concerts in England. He first came forward as a composer in 1895 with the symphonic poem, " Sehnsucht," and a number of light operas followed—" Der Barenhauter," " Herzog Wildfang," "Der Kobold," Sterncnebot," " Banadietrich," and " Sommerflammen," which were produced mostly at Munich or Karlsruhe. His work, however, falls far below tho level of his father's