Judith Cabaud and Barry Millington, ‘A Breath of Sorrow’: The Tragic Romance of Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck with six poems of Mathilde’s published for the first time

November 2020, Volume 14, Number 3, 5–30.

The American-born writer Judith Cabaud, resident in France, in 1990 published a book under the title Mathilde Wesendonck ou le rève d’Isolde. Only in 2017 was this finally issued in an English translation as Mathilde Wesendonck: Isolde’s Dream by the Amadeus Press. The following electronic dialogue between the author (JC) and the editor of The Wagner Journal (BM) took place during the first weeks of the coronavirus lockdown.

BM: I would like to begin by thanking you for writing such a fascinating book about Mathilde Wesendonck and for agreeing to discuss it with me. Most Wagnerians are probably aware that in addition to writing the five poems that were set by Wagner – what we now know as the Wesendonck Lieder ­– Mathilde wrote a considerable number of other poems, as well as dramas on both historical and mythological subjects. In order better to understand the nature and course of the relationship between Wagner and Mathilde, you have examined these writings to see what they can tell us.