Eva Rieger, A Postscript to ‘A Breath of Sorrow’

March 2021, Volume 15, Number 1, 26–31.

The previous issue of ‘The Wagner Journal’ featured, under the title ‘ “A Breath of Sorrow”: The Tragic Romance of Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck with six poems of Mathilde’s published for the first time’, a dialogue between Judith Cabaud and the editor about the former’s book ‘Mathilde Wesendonck ou le rève d’Isolde’, published in English translation as ‘Mathilde Wesendonck: Isolde’s Dream’ in 2017. The November 2020 issue was a celebration of the 80th birthday of Professor Eva Rieger, who here responds to that dialogue.

I found the dialogue between Judith Cabaud and Barry Millington most intriguing and interesting, and would here like to volunteer a few further facts about Mathilde Wesendonck’s life that I have come across more or less by chance, which might be of interest to the readers of The Wagner Journal.