The Tragedy of Cosima and Isolde: Jonas Karlsson examines an account of an early rift in the Wagner clan

The title of this meticulously researched biography contains in nuce the tragedy that lies at the very heart of its subject. Whereas Eva Rieger’s previous two books on Wagnerian women – Minna Wagner: A Life, With Richard Wagner (about his first wife) and Friedelind Wagner: Richard Wagner’s Rebellious Granddaughter – provide the full names of their protagonists, Isolde is presented here only by her first name, with the sole specification that she was ‘Richard Wagner’s daughter’. Born in Munich on 10 April 1865, two months before the premiere of Tristan und Isolde in the same city, Isolde was the composer’s first child with Cosima von Bülow. However, as Cosima was still married to the conductor Hans von Bülow, Isolde was never legitimised as Richard Wagner’s daughter, even though it was soon obvious to everyone who her real father was.