Excerpt from The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters In order to be able to see the life work of Richard Wagner in its true perspective it is necessary always to keep in mind Bayreuth, where the spirit of the great composer is ever revived by fresh artistic deeds. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters In order to be able to see the life work of Richard Wagner in its true perspective it is necessary always to keep in mind Bayreuth, where the spirit of the great composer is ever revived by fresh artistic deeds. "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth" - the master and his life work - is the only proper and comprehensive formula by which to measure the events which took place here. Richard Wagner is an art phenomenon which it would be as difficult to explain away as a Beethoven, a Goethe, or a Schiller. It is to the latter that he is the most clearly related; he is the musical counterpart of the "greatest German of them all," whose art, like Wagner's, sent its roots down deep into German national feeling and character. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In this meticulously researched book, Oliver Hilmes paints a fascinating and revealing picture of the extraordinary Cosima Wagner—illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt, wife of the conductor Hans von Bülow, then mistress and subsequently wife of Richard Wagner. After Wagner’s death in 1883 Cosima played a crucial role in the promulgation and politicization of his works, assuming control of the Bayreuth Festival and transforming it into a shrine to German nationalism. The High Priestess of the Wagnerian cult, Cosima lived on for almost fifty years, crafting the image of Richard Wagner through her organizational ability and ideological tenacity.The first book to make use of the available documentation at Bayreuth, this biography explores the achievements of this remarkable and obsessive woman while illuminating a still-hidden chapter of European cultural history.