The initial experience

Autobiographical sources

It is one of the truisms of Wagner research that particular caution is advisable with regard to the autobiographical writings and jottings. That goes not least for My Life. Nobody would disagree with Otto Strobel that the composer of the Ring, Tristan and Parsifal chose to view certain experiences in a different light from when they were recent and fresh in his mind. Wagner's letters contradict or amend many details in My Life (and as far as facts are concerned, the letters tend to be more reliable than Wagner's other writings).

A full-scale critical study of the way Wagner depicted himself has yet to be written. But research undertaken in connection with the Complete Edition has yielded some important new findings – although some of these, in their turn, have given rise to fresh problems. Recently a start was made on a new edition of Wagner's letters, containing all the available texts.

Cosima's diaries, beginning in January 1869 and ending in January 1883, are an important source which Wagner visualized as a sequel to My Life. (The latter is directly followed by his Annals: brief, lapidary jottings which go up to the end of 1868.) Cosima's diaries were inaccessible to the public until 1972 under the terms of a will; since their publication they have proved to be very helpful to researchers. Almost inevitably some things are repeated, and there are major difficulties in connection with a textual critique of the originals.