The Switzerland exile

Once safely in Switzerland, Wagner could breathe more easily. The immediate danger was gone, and he swiftly wrote a political tract entitled Die Kunst und die Revolution. Other essays followed, all tackling the position of culture, aesthetics and politics. It was during this time that he also wrote Das Judentum in der Musik (an anti-Semitic piece typical of his attitude towards the Jewish people), under the pseudonym of K. Freigedank (which means K. Free-thought). During this time, there was further domestic strife, with Minna distressed by their financial situation and by Wagner’s inclination to pursue other women.

During this time, too, Wagner began composing the large work with which he would forever be associated – the Ring cycle. Influenced by the dramatic possibilities outlined in the Nibelungensage (Myths of the Nibelungen) by some of Germany’s major poets, including Heine, Wagner began writing Siegfried’s Tod in October 1848, with the music begun in 1850. Convinced that the story must be fleshed out more, Wagner began to write a pre-opera for this work, Der junge Siegfried, in May 1851. But later that year, he knew this would be no single opera – it flourished in his imagination as a huge four-part work, and he began to write the texts of the four operas over the next year and a half. The libretto for Die Walküre was written by July 1852; Das Rheingold was completed in November 1852; Der junge Siegfried was renamed Siegfried, and completed in November or December; and Siegfrieds Tod (renamed Götterdämmerung) was finished around the same time. He did not work on the music immediately, but from November 1853 through to August 1856, Wagner composed music for his Der Ring des Nibelungen. It was a huge task, and it’s no wonder that by 1856, he was heartily sick of the business.

The Wesendonck affair

During this period of intense composition, occasionally broken by other compositions (including a libretto for Der Sieger, and music sketches for it), his living expenses were paid for by generous friends. In particular, his friend Otto Wesendonck not only gave Wagner large sums, but also provided a house for him and Minna. Most men with so much reason to be grateful to a friend would not have dreamed of abusing that generosity by seducing the friend’s wife – Wagner, however, had no such scruples. Mathilde Wesendonck, wife of the generous Otto, was the object of Wagner’s desire, and the infatuation also fuelled Wagner’s new project, an opera called Tristan und Isolde. He began writing music sketches for this work at the end of 1856, and started the libretto in August 1857.

Tristan und Isolde is a tale of forbidden erotic love, but it is also a tale of betrayal. The story is familiar enough – Isolde is promised to King Mark, but falls in love with Tristan who is to deliver her to her betrothed. The pair drinks from a cup that seals their love – never can they escape from this earthly desire. It is a glorious work, but beneath its sensuous beauty lies the serpent in the garden – Wagner did not hesitate to betray friendship for a love that, for all he spoke about eternity, would only last for a while.