Letters to Cosima and Ludwig

Cosima von Bülow and King Ludwig II of Bavaria are clearly the main persons in Richard Wagner's correspondence of the year 1866. Wagner sent more than 100 letters and telegrams to the young Cosima, who was (still) not able to share her life with him and who was for him an important link to the royal court in Munich during this period. Of course, Wagner also wrote directly to the young monarch and passionate art lover Ludwig, addressing him long letters in order to obtain his favor. Compositionally, Wagner was working on the completion of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" in 1866. In April, he settled in Tribschen near Lucerne, where he lived for a few years. This marked a temporary end to his previous restlessness. Bolstering the high source value of this comprehensively annotated volume is the fact that 34 letters from this eventful year are published here for the first time; a further 15 can be read in German in their entirety, also for the first time.