Malten’s Private Materials: Eva Rieger evaluates intriguing details of Wagner’s first Kundry

Review of Michael Letchford, Therese Malten: Wagner’s Devoted Kundry (Goar Lodge, 2010).

March 2011, Volume 5, Number 1, 108.

The Wagnerian soprano Therese Malten (1855–1930) is known today primarily for having created the role of Kundry at Bayreuth in the premiere performances of Parsifal in 1882. Working under Wagner’s supervision, she shared the role with Marianne Brandt and Amalie Materna. Michael Letchford was able to purchase a collection of vignettes, photographs, reviews, original correspondence and other memorabilia referring to the singer and the time she spent in St Petersburg, where she lived and worked. The material presented is intriguing: mysterious letters, rough notes, press notices, programmes and even a pressed flower which an intimate admirer once received from Malten.