Charlotte Purkis, Passion or Fashion? British Female Wagnerites ‘Out and About’ Around 1900

In 1897, Miss Gertrude Hudson, writing under the pseudonym ‘Israfel Mondego’, asked ‘Is Wagner a passion or a fashion?’ The question arose in a humorous reflection entitled ‘Buggins at Bayreuth’, written from the standpoint of an assumed male identity and included in a volume of essays entitled Impossibilities – Fantasias. From a convenient
window onto the Bürgerreuther Strasse, Hudson observed the daily procession to the shrine of the Festspielhaus, and concluded that typical ‘Wagnerians’ were not just attractive pensive youths and egotistical male music critics but predominantly females of mixed nationalities. Paying attention to appearance and style, she conjured up a scene of ‘a fair sprinkling of large Teutons in squash hats and spectacles’, along with ‘most charming and quaintly attired’ ladies with ‘hair worthy of some attention’.