Wagner, Richard. (1813–1883) [Seidl, Anton. (1850–1898)]
Wagner's Cigar Cutter, given by Cosima to Anton Seidl
Cigar cutter made of mother-of-pearl and metal, 1 x 4.5 cm, owned and used by Richard Wagner.With remarkable provenance, the cigar cutter given by Cosima Wagner to Anton Seidl, after his having been a pallbearer and Wagner's funeral. Together with a photocopy of the final envelope addressed to Seidl from Wagner, given with the cutter by Seidl in New York to Freda Eising, a New York socialite involved with the Metropolitan Opera (and, later, on the board of the Julliard School), with whom Seidl may have been romantically involved. Inherited from Freda Eising by Edward Munzer, Jr. (1923 - 1984), son of Eising's cousin, Martha Munzer, and an amateur pianist with who Freda Eising frequently played four-hand piano music in her New York apartment. By descent to the present owner.
In 1872, Anton Seidl was summoned to Bayreuth as one of Richard Wagner's copyists, and he assisted in making the first fair copy of Der Ring des Nibelungen. He and Wagner remained close associates, with Wagner helping to secure Seidl's appointment to the Leipzig State Theater, where he remained until, in 1882, he went on tour with Angelo Neumann's Nibelungen Ring company. "On the morning of February14, having arrived in Aix-la-Chapelle (today's Aachen) with his technical staff and chorus, Neumann was informed of Wagner's death in Venice the day before. Seidl honored his commitment to give Das Rheingold that evening. 'Tears were streaming from his eyes during the performance,' according to a member of the company. Following the Entrance of the Gods, the audience stood for the Funeral Music from Götterdämmerung. Paul Geissler, Neumann's assistant conductor, completed the Aix Ring while Seidl and Neumann joined the mourners who received Wagner's body at the Bayreuth train station. An observer reported that Seidl 'could not conceal his grief as did the older people who endeavored to console him.' When Neumann's Wagner tour reached Venice two months later, Seidl's orchestra, deployed in Venetian gondolas of state, played Siegfried's Funeral Music before the Palazzo Vendramin, where Wagner had died." (Joseph Horowitz, "Wagner Nights," p. 86)
After Wagner's death, Seidl went with Neumann to Bremen, but two years later was appointed as a conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where he became conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1891 and where he remained until his death in 1898. (9830)
Ephemera Opera