Wagner manuscript back in Zurich after 170 years
The University of Zurich has acquired the manuscript of Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) "Message to my friends". In it, the composer makes an autobiographical and artistic assessment of his life and looks to the future. Research into the manuscript should provide new insights into Wagner's time in Zurich.
In its press release dated April 24, the University of Zurich (UZH) writes that during his exile in Zurich from 1849 to 1858, Wagner worked, among other things, on The Ring of the Nibelung also wrote seminal works on music and drama theory. "The original working manuscript of one of these writings, entitled A message to my friends has now returned to its place of origin after around 170 years." Wagner wrote it in Zurich Enge in 1851. "The text was published in the same year as a supplement and preface to the libretti of the operas The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. The book is a kind of autobiographical assessment of the works before the revolution and the great post-revolutionary Ring-project."
Handwriting as an object of study
The Zentralbibliothek Zürich (ZB) preserves the manuscript. Scholars at the University of Zurich are researching it. Until now, the text was "only available in the first print and in the version of Richard Wagner's collected writings and poems. The manuscript, on the other hand, reveals intensive work." It is expected that the research "will provide new findings and insights into the work, thoughts and influence of Richard Wagner in Zurich. Once the research has been completed, the manuscript will be made available by the ZB."
Foundations made the purchase possible
The acquisition of the manuscript at Sotheby's was made possible thanks to donations from the UBS Cultural Foundation in Zurich and the Bareva Foundation in Vaduz. The purchase of this manuscript is of great importance for Zurich, the UHZ and academia, says UZH Rector Michael Schaepman in the press release. Laurenz Lütteken, Co-Director of the Institute of Musicology at UZH, where Wagner is one of the main areas of research, says: "Such top-class manuscripts by Wagner are otherwise hardly available on the open market". The working manuscript of the Message to my friends is "another pearl in the important Wagneriana collection at the ZB, which includes music and text manuscripts, music prints, printed matter and letters", the UHZ summarizes.
Link to the original press release from the University of Zurich
