Wagner's Letters

Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck

Undated · Lucerne

Overview

Wagner writes that tears have been streaming from him while composing Kurwenal's lines in Act III of Tristan promising healing on Tristan's own pastures, all the more harrowing because they pass over the delirious hero like a hollow sound.

Letter

Child! Child! Tears have just been streaming from me while composing —: Kurwenal:

"Auf eig'ner Weid' und Wonne
im Schein der alten Sonne,
darin von Tod und Wunden —
du selig sollst gesunden." —

That will be very harrowing — especially as it makes no impression at all upon Tristan, but passes o'er him like a hollow sound.

There's immense tragedy in it! Overwhelming!

Source: Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905), No. 71

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