The connection of the German composer Richard Wagner with Riga was much closer than the simple conductor’s baton, which is now preserved in the Museum of History and Navigation in Riga, and the street named after the great German artist in Old Riga. It is not entirely destined to discover how much of everything there has been and just how legendary it is.
How many Wagners, how many wands?
In mid-August 1837, Richard Wagner (1813-1883) came to Riga to take up the duties of choirmaster at the Riga German Theater (the Wagner Hall is located there). After about two years, he and his wife Minna secretly fled across the Russian border from Jelgava via Lithuania, and from Pilava in Prussia, they went by ship to France via London. What was Wagner running from? Quite prosaically – from creditors. The people of Riga are left with only one wand – made of ebony and ivory, delicate, decorated with engravings, at the end of which is a miniature woman’s hand. It was owned by the Riga German Singing Society.
»Vakara Ziņas« already wrote that in 2002, when the conducting of the concerts was directed by the current director of the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, Uldis Lipskis, the legend of the conductor’s baton, which Wagner would have used to conduct the concerts, came to light. It was exhibited for some time in a display case in the Wagner Hall, but was then moved to the Riga History and Navigation Museum, where it is still displayed in a display case in the Hall of Columns. Legend has it that Wagner, persecuted by creditors, handed his luxurious conductor’s baton to the landlord because he could not pay the rent.
In 2004, this baton was used by early music expert and conductor Māris Kupès to conduct the concert “With Wagner’s baton”. There is a version that this wand belonged to a completely different Rihards Vägner, a merchant and Freemason from Riga, and the famous composer has no connection with it.
Riga is more interesting
How did Wagner get to Riga? A young man was sitting in a tavern in Lübeck and asked the owner to cook scrambled eggs. Slowly and wearily, the man leafed through Heinrich Heine’s Parisian almanac “Salon” until he stopped at the myth of the wandering Dutchman, the ghost ship. After starting a conversation with the sailor, the young man admitted that he was going to Riga, on the run from Königsberg’s creditors. Before that he worked as a choirmaster in Königsberg, but he found it boring there.
Riga, on the other hand, seemed more interesting, even though he lived in a small and unsightly apartment in the old town and worked in the City Theater Orchestra. The young man was only 24 years old. He worked in Riga for two seasons, his first major opera “Rienci” was created here and, most likely, work on “The Wandering Dutchman” began. Wagner was drenched in sweat, he managed to stage about 20 works by German, Italian and French composers in Riga. Unfortunately, the composer had a disagreement with the theater director Carl von Holthei, who believed that in an opera one should look at the body shapes of singers and do not listen to music. Wagner retorted that music is the foundation of opera. He was a nice conversationalist, he loved to tell anecdotes, parody others, however he was so passionate about his work and he devoted himself to art that he used to fight with the people of the theater. So it was…
Abominations of competitors
In Riga he received a visit from his unfaithful wife Minna, who in the meantime had left her lover (or he had left her). Wagner accepted a wife, albeit not with open arms, and did not remember her past. Even when things were going very badly. Like when he fell seriously ill and Holtey spread the rumor that the conductor would never get up again. Holtey was probably driven by nefarious reasons because he had investigated Minna. And so it was. Minna later confessed to her husband that Holtey molested her. When the woman did not agree to become his lover, Holtey reacted against Wagner: he paid little and tortured her in every other way. Not physically, of course. But … preventing the achievement of professionally ambitious goals.
Wagner’s life in Riga became unbearable. His rival, Heinrich von Dorn, was appointed conductor and published rants and raves about Wagner; eternal poverty; the scandals of his wife and the lament that as Holtey’s lover he would at least have money and a good life … Eventually, a representative of the authorities approached the ailing Wagner and told him that Dorn’s publications had brought the persecutors – the creditors – in the footsteps of the composer. Either he pays off his debts, or his life will take an unpleasant turn, most likely – in prison. He was unable to pay off his debts.
Exactly as ordered, the acquaintance of Wagner Ábrams Meller, a man with an adventurous spirit, arrived in Riga at that time. He encouraged the unsuccessful music servant to go to Paris, only there to evaluate his talents. Wagner, his wife and Meller left Riga on the trail of the traffickers. Their plan worked! Leaving Riga, the genius was as dark as a thundercloud due to unpaid debts. It is believed that it was in the waves of the Baltic Sea that he came up with the idea for the work “The Wandering Dutchman”. And in the hall of our city theater, he in turn saw the principles of its construction: the seating arrangement in the shape of an amphitheater and the thorough orchestra pit, which he used as a model in the construction of his he Bayreuth theater. However, in Paris, he was told that if he wanted to be successful with “The Wandering Dutchman”, he would have to look for an authoritative co-author.
Talent does not disappear anywhere
What Wagner? He went to Dresden, where better times began: he became choirmaster at the Saxon court.
As if when Wagner had already become famous, an old, miserable, dirty man went to him in Munich, who said he was Heinrich von Dorn, a former guardian of Wagner and now a great admirer of his. Wagner denied that he did not remember such a thing and gave money to the beggar, as described by Valentíns Pikulis in the book “Paris for three hours”.
