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Grace Bumbry

At the age of 24 Bumbry gained international renown when she was cast by Wieland Wagner (Richard Wagner's grandson) as Venus in Tannhäuser at Bayreuth in 1961 alongside Victoria de los Angeles as Elisabeth, and Wolfgang Windgassen as Tannhäuser. Bumbry was the first black singer of African-American origin or otherwise to appear at Bayreuth in a leading Wagnerian role, and the first to appear on the Festival's stage in over sixty years. (Bumbry is often cited as the first black singer to appear on the Bayreuth stage, but she was preceded by Luranah Aldridge who was cast by Cosima as one on the Valkyries at the 1895 Festival.)

Black Venus/Black Wagner

In December 1958 Bumbry's tutor Lotte Lehmann wrote to Friedelind Wagner recommending Bumbry:

She has a really sensationally beautiful and flourishing mezzo-soprano voice. She is black, but I hope nobody will object to that nowadays. It actually seems to be quite an attraction.

Friedleind, in turn, recommended Bumbry to her brother Wieland.

who cast her in his second production of Tannhäuser.

The casting was deliberately provocative.

A displeased Winifred Wagner described the casting of the black Venus as "completely unnecessary".

Conservative/Reactionary/Racist opera-goers were outraged at the idea.

In Act I, Bumbry's Venus took up a commanding stance to the rear of the great central space where she remained for the e

but Bumbry's performance was so moving?? powerful???

that by the end of the opera she had won the audience over and they applauded for 30 minutes, necessitating 42 curtain calls.[7] The furore in the media made Bumbry an international cause célèbre and earned her the title "Black Venus".

Bumbry returned to Bayreuth in 1963, the 150th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth, to reprise her role of Venus in Wieland's production. She was also one of the soloists in the opening performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

This time the New Batreuthians grasped the political imperative. Carnegy????

The young Jewish pianist Daniel Barenboim performed two recitals at Haus Wahnfried; the first of these a solo recital, the second a lieder recital with another of Friedelind's protege's, the African-American soprano Elle Lee.

Winnie and Wolf

Winnie and Wolf is an historical novel by A. N. Wilson first published in 2007. Set mostly in Bayreuth between the late 1920s the 1940's, the novel is a historical fiction that revolves around the love-affair between Richard Wagner's English daughter-in-law, Winifred Wagner and Adolf Hitler. The novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and is dedicated to Beryl Bainbridge. The novel was published five years after Brigitte Hamann's biography of Winifred, and five years before Wilson's own biography of Hitler.

Historical background

In June 1945 Winifred was interviewed by two young American journalists for The Stars and Stripes, the US army newspaper . The journalists were the German émigrés Klaus Mann and Curt Riess. Winifred made no attempt to conceal or dilute her friendship with Hitler. Speaking in better English than both Mann and Riess, she ...

[Hitler] was so attractive. I dont know much about politics , but quite a lot about men. Hitler was charming. A real Austrian! Warm-hearted and engaging! And his sense of humour was just wonderful.

The journalists were...forthright. There wass one question that they did not even have to ask me because Winifred addressed the question in advance

Quote I did not sleep with Adolf Hitler.

Knopp, Guido Hitler's Women 2006 Sutton Publishing Stroud 148

The fallout from the interview was to make Winifred both famous and infamous with journalists converging on Bayreuth for an interview with an unrepentant Nazi. She repeatedly denied that

she had been Hitler's lover. Hitler had been her lover. she and Hitler had been lovers. 406

Albert Speer however repeated the claim, rumour, accusation, gossip in 1972 to the historian Joachim Fest.

Wilson, A.N. Hitler: A Short Biography 2012 Harper Press London p.56

Does she then deny it again in the film?

"Did 'Wolf' and Winifred have a physical relationship? Although Knopp acknowledges that there is no proof that they there were lovers, Knopp's innuendoes leave little doubt what he believes:

...when they met at night in some remote hostelry she no doubt found a little compensation for the privations of her marriage [to the homosexual Siegfried] p165

Plot Summary

The Double-Framed Foreword

The novel is constructed as a sort of confession and memoir written by Herr N—, an employee of the Wagner family, and the man who will become the adoptive father of Winnie and Wolf's lovechild. Before the story begins there is 'an awkward double-frame' of a fictional foreword written by Hermann Muller, Assistant Pastor at the South Heath Lutheran Church in Seattle. Muller tells/says that he was given the manuscript by one of his parishioners, Senta Christiansen as she once was, or, as she became, Winifred Hiedler, the name she adopted in 1982 when she herself allegedly received the manuscript of which the book is composed. The pastor believes that Senta's namechange is token of the fact that she believed the contents of the book to be true (her new surname is a possible Czech variant of the Hitler family name). The foreword concludes with the pastor speculating that whilst the subsequent narrative might be a genuinely historical tale told by one of the participants, it alternatively might have been written by Senta/Winifred, indicative of a very deeply mentally unbalanced woman who believes herself to be the daughter of Winifred and Hitler. The pastor makes no further appearance. Throughout he book there are a number of footnotes that provide a brief explanation to some of the historical background, but there is no indication whether these footnotes have been included by Wilson, Muller, Herr N—, or Senta/Winifred. The novel does not provide any solution to the mystery of the narrative's origin.

The Chapters

The novel is divided into seven chapters, each of which is named after
and relating to ???
the/a respective Wagner opera, preceeded by a foreword.

The chapter introduces the historical personages of the Wagner clan, their acolytes, and provides some historical background to their real lives. The fictional narrator, Herr N— is a young philosophy dropout, a friend and fellow student of Martin H-, and an enthusiastic Wagnerian who has been employed as secretary to the director of the Bayreuth Festival, Siegfried Wagner. The narrator explains that his role at Wahnfried is to act as a general assistant to Siegfried Wagner, the then director of the Bayreuth Festival, and to help him with his correspondence, organize his diary, take telephone calls and in effect act as Siegfried's personal valet, and general factototum to the rest of the household.

The Flying Dutchman

Siegfried Wagner and his family in 1922

The first chapter is headed with lines sung by the flying Dutchman in his Act 2 duet with his redeemer, Senta, taken from the first of Wagner's mature operas, Der fliegende Holländer.

Die düst're Glut, die hier ich fühle brennen

Sollt' ich, Unseliger, die Liebe nennen?
Ach nein! Die Sehnsucht ist es nach dem Heil:
Würd' es durch solchen Engel mir zu Teil!br>

This dark desire, this flame within me burning
what does it signify? Is love returning?
Ah no, salvation is my only goal:

God grant that she might save my wretched soul.

The setting for the opening of the first chapter is a lazy afternoon in the early summer of 1925. Herr N— is wandering through the Wagner family home, Haus Wahnfried, where he is employed by Siegfried Wagner as personal secretary and valet. Herr N— recalls that Siegfried's need for a young man as a secretary was met with a not unpredictable raising of eyebrows. Herr N—'s progress is arrested by the alert questioning of the seven year old Friedelind Wagner. Friedelind wants to know whether Herr N— thinks Uncle Wolf a good man; a question that Herr N— sidesteps, an situation that Friedelind finds unsatisfactory. Friedelind tries a more nuanced tact by repeating her mother Winifred's assertion that there have only been three great Germans; Martin Luther, Frederick the Great and Uncle Wolf. Despite having a different opinion, Herr N— remains silent on the matter. For a third time, Friedelind solicits Herr N—'s opinion, this time to find out if Herr N— agrees with Uncle Wolf that Germany needs saving from the Jews. This time Herr N— tells Friedelind that he does not. Satisfied, Mausi agrees, repeating her mothers words that "Uncle Wolf has a bee in his bonnet" recalling how her "yid" doctor Liebermann has always been kind and once prescribed her three days in bed with the Brothers Grimm.

From a room beyond Herr N— hears the rasping tones of Uncle Wolf (Adolf Hitler); master storyteller, children's entertainer, passionate Wagnerian, and flatulent Jew hater. The enchanted children hang on his every word

---

Observing Winifred holding the youngest child against her bosom the narrator fantasizes about his sexual attraction to the twenty eight years old Winifred - exchanging position with the infant.

The narrator recounts the historical background to the inspirational voyage across the North Sea that Richard Wagner and his wife Minna took from Riga to London in 1839 as a prelude to the backstory of how Winifred comes to be sitting in the composer's house with Adolf Hitler.

Born in Hastings in 18xx, the young Winifred Williams was orphaned by the age of .... Unwanted the child was passed from one reluctant family member to another before being finally committed to a religious orphanage at the age of ... She hated the nuns. Willful, disobedient and frequently punished, intolerant of authority she became so unwell that a doctor prescribed a continental holiday.

A distant relative on her mother's side offered her recuperation in....Germany and so Winifred Williams entered the household of .... and Karl Klindworth, pupil of Liszt, friend of Richard Wagner and confident of the composer's widow, Cosima. At the piano, Klindworth taught her German, played her Wagners music and told her stories from the Brothers Grimm. Welcomed and loved, the child's health and behaviour improved, and so the Klindworths decided to formally adopt Winifred. With Klindworth she learns to speak German and is inducted into the nationalist belief system of Jew-hatred.

For her part Winifred became so enthralled by the Wagner operas, and in particular Der fliegende Holländer, that upon her adoption she became Senta Klindworth. Before she can become Winifred Wagner, the object of the narrator's desire, and in order to explain how Winifred, and daughter-in-law of Richard Wagner comes to be in the Wahnfried sitting-room with her children whilst Hitler holds them spellbound with his storytelling, the narrator has to delve back again into the Wagner family history to explain provide two further backstories: the near scandalous events of June 1914 involving Siegfried, and the uncertain paternity of Cosima's daughter, Isolde, born in 1865.

Financially solvent following the extraordinary munificence of King Ludwig of Bavaria, Wagner, in May 1864, wrote to Hans von Bülow asking him to join him in the twenty-two room Villa Pellet on the shore of Lake Starnberg. (Hilmes, p.71). After some hesitation in the part of the von Bülow's they relented to the battery of Wagner's requests, pleadings and demands. Work commitments kept von Bülow in Berlin until 7th July but Cosima arrived in Starnberg on 29 June. Unbeknown to von Bülow, his wife had begun a love affair with Wagner that dated from November 1863. When von Bülow did arrive he was suffering from rheumatic fever, his left arm was almost paralysed, his nerves were in shreds and he could barely stand. (Hilmes, p.73-4) Nine months later, on the 10th of April 1865, Cosima gave birth to a daughter: Isolde.

Wilson's narrator calls Isolde "Wagner's favourite child" but when, in 1914, Cosima attempted to reduce Isolde's annual allowance following the disastrous loss of copyright of Parsifal the previous year, Isolde rebelled and demanded her proper inheritance, that of the future directorship of the Bayreuth Festival.

Cosima responded Why???? by declaring that Isolde was not Wagner's daughter. Isolde was forced into an unwise litigation. Despite yhe sworn testimony of the Villa Pellets maidservant that before von Bülow arrive Frau Cosima had given herself to Wagner The subject of Siegfried's homosexuality now returns as the narrator tells of the fallout of Isoldes's humiliation. During the 1914 Festival's rehearsals, Maximilian Harden, the journalist and feared outer of homosexuals, published on the 27th June a long, destructive article in the Berlin publication Die Zukunft entitled "Siegfried und Isolde" that alluded to "the dynastic delusions" of Cosima and Siegfried. Faced with further scandal and the possible arrest and imprisonment of her homosexual son, Cosima was spared the immediate trouble when the following day the Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo precipitating the first World War. Desperate to avoid further allegations placing her son in the same company as Oscar Wilde, Cosima wrote to her old confident Klindworth, who replied with a solution: weeks later Klindworth, accompanied by his seventeen year old adopted daughter, steps off the train and arrives in Bayreuth.

Senta finds herself surveyed by the very sharp dark eyes of the old lady. The face is summing up the value of goods in a market. The old eyes run shamelessly up and down her future daughter-in-law's face, bosom, legs. there is something enraging but also thrilling in this as beautiful youth stands with all its advantages before crumbling old age. ... 'This is the child,' says Cosima.

Winifred would later call it love at first sight. In September 1915 Siegfried and Winifred were married. By December 1920 they had four children; and the Scylla and Charybides of "Siegfried and Isolde had been successfully navigated. Senta had fulfilled her reedeming destiny.

The narrator's family disapprove of their son's Wagnerianisms.

Characters

Most characters in the novel are historical personages. Some, listed below, have either walk-through parts or are simply included within the narrative to provide verisimiltude. Except for the fictional narrator/secretary and his immediate family, all the characters in Chapter 1 are historical.????

non-fictional

Winifred Wagner
(Uncle) Wolf / Adolf Hitler
Friedelind Wagner
Cosima Wagner
Siegfried Wagner
Karl Klindworth
Putzi Hanfstaengl
Ernest Urchs
Friedrich Schorr
Hugh Walpole
Helene Bechstein
Michael Balling
Adolf Harrack p.61?

Fictional

Unnamed secretary of Siegfried and later Winifred
The character is in the position of Father
Mother
Brother

Critical Reception

Ken Kreckel writing for the Historical Novel Society suggests that the book will only be of interest to those with a particular interest in either Hitler or Wagner. Otherwise; 'it is best to leave this opaque and nearly impenetrable volume alone'. Caroline Miller in The Guardian finds that the book's finest elements are the character sketches of the fascinating Wagner family members. Overall, however, she finds that the work lacks moral force and the narrative command required to be a truly great account of the Wagners and their "Wolf".

Tristan und Isolde

Arrangements

The British composer Ronald Stevenson has made two arrangements based on the opera. The first is The Fugue on the Shepherd's Air from Tristan und Isolde from 1999. Its composition was inspired by a lecture given by the Wagner biographer and chair of the Wagner Society of Scotland, Derek Watson, to whom the piece is dedicated. In a masterfully contrapuntalist climax, Stevenson combines both the Shepherd's Air and Isoldes's Liebestod. The second is a setting, for voices and organ, of lines from Tom Hubbard's narrative poem in Scots, 'Isolde's Luve-Daith'. The premiere took place in Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh in March 2003.

Between 6th-9th June 1997, the Uri Caine Ensemble made live recordings of seven Wagner arrangements, two of which, the Prelude to Act 1 and the Liebestod, were from Tristan und Isolde. The recording was made at the Gran Caffé in the Piazza San Marco and the Hotel Metropole, Riva Schiavoni, Venice. The recording was subsequently released by Winter and Winter as Wagner e Venezia. In his Gramaphone review

In Popular Culuture

Bernstein > https://arbaker.typepad.com/bakerblog/2005/08/bernstein_trist.html

Music from the opera was Lars von Trier's 2011? film Melancholia. Von Trier previously used Wagner's music in the 1987 film, Epidemic.

had been interested in directing a production of The Ring at Bayreuth but unexpectedly pulled out of the project in 2004 stating that it exceeded his powers.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527186/soundtrack

https://academic.oup.com/oq/article-abstract/23/2-3/338/1447766?redirectedFrom=PDF https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291949363_Indulging_in_Romance_with_Wagner_Tristan_in_Lars_von_Trier's_Melancholia_2011

Musical Style of Lohengrin

The Preludes to Acts 1 and 3

Lohengrin is the first of Wagner's operas to have orchestral preludes rather than overtures. Writing in 1818 in his ironic, quasi-semi-autobiographical Tonkünstlersleben the composer Carl Maria von Weber defines the overture as 'a noise made in the orchestra to make the audience shut up'. The conductor Christian Thielemann, whilst concurring with Weber's definition thinking that the change in term is of no of particular significance, he nevertheless recognises that the change clearly expresses Wagner's turning away from Italian and French operatic conventions. The academic Steven Vande Moortele regards the change as more significant noting that this definitive move of Wagner's also marks the caesura in his career precipitated by his involvement in the Dresden uprising.

As an aspiring composer in the 1830's, Wagner took full advantage of the Overture genre's potential composing three distinct type of overture: the operatic overtures to Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot, and Rienzi (the latter composed in November 1840 though not publicly performed until 1842); the overtures that were intended to accompany the performance of a non-musical, dramatic play such as the 1835, Mendelssohn-inspired Christoph Columbus for Theodor Apel's play of the same name; and the concert overture, such as the 1837 Rule Britannia Overture and perhaps more famously A Faust Overture from 1839-40. It was in this form that Wagner started to attract broader attention. In an 1838 review of Wagner's activities as kapellmeister in Riga, the journalist Heinrich Dorn singled out the Christoph Columbus and the Rule Britannia overtures. A Faust Overture marks the almost complete end of Wagner's non-operatic orchestral work as Wagner concentrates his efforts on the staging of Rienzi, the composition and staging of the Romantic operas, and his musical duties as a Dresden kapellmeister. Although there are are two symphonic sketches from 1846-7, the only non-operatic orchestral work completed between 1840 and the mid 1860's was the Trauermusik on motifs from Weber's Euryanthe composed, in 1844, to accompany Weber's body to its final resting place in the Friedrichstadt cemetery.

Wagner's theoretical entry into the public discourse of overtures begins during his stay in Paris with the composition of the essay Über die Ouverture (On the Overture), published in the Gazette Musicale over three weeks in January 1841. In the essay, Wagner is particularly interested in two relationships: firstly that of the overture to the procedding action; and secondly the transition from the overture to the action.

Wagner traces the genealogical development of the overture from the spoken introduction to a non-musical drama designed to pave the journey from ... to ...

Whereas an overture would be expected to be a resumé of the opera's main themes,

The form of the Act 1 prelude is more akin to the concert tone-poems

Lohengrin's Act 1 prelude is a musico-dramatic preambulum of the drama itself and is in form, more akin to Beethoven's concert overture Leonore than the overtures of Wagner's own operas. 

Lohengrin Act 1 prelude derived its contemporary status as a stand-alone piece from the continuing interest in the concert overtures of the type that Wagner praised in Uber die Overture.

Wagner established both the Act 1 and Act 3 preludes as concert pieces when he conducted performances in Zurich in 1853, More significantly, during the preparation for the production of Tannhäuser in Paris 1861 Wagner conducted three concerts in January-February 1860. The poet and critic Charles Baudelaire attended the concerts and the opera performance, and it is from his celebrated essay on Tannhäuserthat the French enthusiasm for Wagner begins.

The relationship between prose and the need to be heard as well as read.

For the Zurich Music-Festival ??? In the Neue Zeitschrift publication Wagner called the prelude "die Instrumental-Einleitung" ("the Instrumental Introduction").

Wagner composed the Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin in August 1847, after he had completed the orchestral draft of the entire opera.

The tempo is marked as Langsam. In a letter from Wagner to Liszt in August 1850 a metronome beat of 76 <ref???>

The prelude begins in the key of A sharp, with the string quartet of solo violins high strings combined with flutes and oboes

The prelude's beginning with high strings juxtaposed with solo flutes and oboes is has an uncanny resemblance to the sunrise in Félicien David's 1844 symphonic ode Le Desert.

In 1874-75, Wagner once again toyed with the idea of a large concert overture, initially titled Lohengrin's Ocean Voyage later becoming Lohengrin's Journey. Despite the failure of the projected work to materialize,

The Preludes to Acts 1 and 3 of Lohengrin continue to feature in their own right in concert programmes and in recordings.

The compositional focal point of which stands uniquely the Grail theme.

The final three bars of the Act 1 prelude (73-75) are given over to the violins, and the prelude proper ends with a string quartet, formed by the four solo violins. Playing, between long rests, silvery flageolet notes marked piano pianissimmo, the ending evokes the ether back to which the Holy Grail has returned.

The Act 3 prelude, in the opera, goes on seamlessly into what has become known as the bridal chorus. To resolve this for the concert platform Wagner wrote a new ending for the Zurich performance but this ending has unfortunately been lost and there is no record as to how Wagner solved the dilemma.

the key that during the action will become tonallly associated with the character Lohengrin.

Themes, Reminiscence motifs and Leitmotif

There is no single technique that marks Lohengrin as a transitional piece of modern music so much as its use of leitmotifs. Reminiscence motifs had become a standard feature of symphonic writing both in French grand opéra (Meyerbeer's ''Les Huguenots'') and in German Romantic opera (Weber's Euryanthe) by the 1840's, but by the time Wagner began to compose Lohengrin he had, he tells us, conceived of the latent possibilities in the development of simple absolute reminiscences into a complex, continuous musical discourse composed of a network of infinitely transformable thematic material.

Grey's example of reminiscence>>

<Wagner quote>

There are, at least, twenty-six themes in Lohengrin though John Deathridge states that only six are regularly recurring leitmotifs, noting that this number is fewer than appear in the first scene of Das Rheingold.

Although Wagner was yet to develop his leitmotific technique there is, in Lohengrin, a striking anticipation of it in the leitmotif of 'the forbidden question'. Wagner hinges the main source of suspense fuelling the drama on Elsa's promise to keep clear of he forbidden question.

The motif is first heard in Act 1 Scene 3 in Lohengrin's vocal line which is sung in A flat major, very slowly, to the words 'nie sollst du mich befragen'.

The key signature normally associated with Lohengrin is A major, but his shift down a semitone into the key most associated with Elsa provides the injunction with a deliberate pedagogic intent. The orchestral accompaniment to the vocal line is sparse: a sustained Ab-Cb dyad, (a major third interval), with imperfect consonance marking the injunction with a sense of unease

that is enhanced when ...(describe the notes) on the flutes and bassoons

The motif's most dramatic use is in Act 2 Scene 4 when Ortrud interrupts Elsa's wedding procession. Against the prevailing stately C major of the wedding procession, the trumpets and trombones portentously blazon out the motif, casting a sombre F minor shadow over the proceedings. F minor is the relative minor of A major, the key tonally associated with Elsa, and the original key of the Fragverboten.

Wagner was especially proud of the moment's drama, writing, in a letter to Liszt, a month after the premiere, on 8th September 1850???:

When I conceived and wrote the second act, it had not escaped me how important it would be for the the proper mood of the spectator to show that Elsa's contentment ...is not really complete and genuine; the public should feel that Elsa violently forces herself to conquer her doubt, and we should in reality fear that, ..., she will finally succumb and ask the prohibited question.... I invented the following dramatic point: Elsa is led by Lohengrin up the steps of the minster; on the topmost step she looks down with timid apprehension...at that moment her glance falls on Ortrud who ...raises her hand in a threatening manner. At this moment I introduce in the orchestra in F minor fortissimo the warning of Lohengrin, ...which...here indicates with absolute certainty, 'Whatever happens, you will disobey the command in spite of all.

Summary Although the motif reappears throughout the opera as a reminder of Lohengrin's stern injunction, and Elsa's promise not to question him about his past, the forbidden question motif does not, for all its dramatic effect and progressive tendency, function as a fully developed leitmotif.

Whereas, in the Ring, the leitmotif is capable of ...

and can determine the shape of paragraphs and/or scenes, the motif in Lohengrin fulfills only a illustrative or dramaturgical purpose.

In exile, Wagner neither saw nor heard Lohengrin until 1863 by which time he had written the poems for xyz., as well as the accompanying theoretical writings xyz. It was uncommon for Wagner to analyze his own music but his inability to hear Lohengrin in the theatre

a letter to Theodor Uhlig in deathridge

https://www.academia.edu/23560664/The_Rhythmically_Melodically_and_Rhythmic_-_Melodically_Analogies_in_Richard_Wagners_Operas

Associative Tonality

...

Grand Opera

Wagner's operas are especially indebted to French grand opéra with regard to their musical dramaturgy: in particular, their lyrical monologues, dramatic dialogues, grandiose ensemble-choral tableaux and, above all, a taste for either cataclysmic or transcendental endings. The musicologist Carl Dahlhaus goes further arguing that Lohengrin is a grand opera; one which follows Scribe and Meyerbeer's established pattern, where the affairs of state are a consequence of private actions.

On the other hand,

through-composed no recitative chriss & huck p.78

The composer who now writes for German singers has therefore to pay particular attention to counteracting this indolent levity by means of certain artistic constraints. Nowhere in my score to Lohengrin have I written the word 'Recitative' above a vocal passage; the singers ought not to know that it contains any recitatives. On the contrary, I have been at pains to take account of the spoken emphasis of the words and to denote such emphasis so unerringly and so precisely that it should be necessary for the singers to sing the notes exactly according to their written value at the given tempo as written; ...

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Emil Preetorius

Winifred's denazification

Wieland's animosity towards, and fear of Preetorius later threatened the liberty of his mother, Winifred. Winifred had been an early supporter of Hitler and she and her husband had travelled to Munich to witness the 1923 putsch. There were rumours at the time of her denazification trial (Spruchkammer) that she had been Hitler's lover: she feared being classified as a major offender (Hauptschuldige) and expected to be sentenced to prison or a labour-camp. The court trial opened on 25th June 1947. In her defence she had amassed fifty four written testimonies detailing how she had engaged with those who had been persecuted and deprived of their rights by the Nazis. Additionally, thirty witnesses were present to provide evidence of her kind deeds and "pure humanity". Yet despite having been asked, Preetorius declined to either attend or provide a written statement. Preetorius had never received the artistic recognition for his achievements at Bayreuth that he regarded was his due. His bitterness now erupted in his reply to Winifred's appeal:-

I don't want to meet your children again, none of whom treated me very well; Wieland in particular was positively hostile, treacherous, even contemptuous. And it's here, in respect of your children, that I'm afraid I may be forced to testify in a way that is not helpful to you. The incredible arrogance of your children - especially Wieland, who exploited his connections with Hitler and Bormann to get away with absolutely everything - that arrogance, lack of respect, and unwillingness to recognize anyone else's achievements, or give them their due at all - I'm so bitter about it, that I can't be sure I won't violently erupt and create an atmosphere not at all favourable to you...No, my dear Frau Wagner, for all my friendship towards you, please understand - I cannot come!

Winifred later, in Syberberg's 1975 film, described herself as "a madly loyal person...If I form an attachment to somebody, I maintain it through thick and thin...I stand by that person. When Preetorius finally returned to Bayreuth, for the 1952 festival, Winifred, "threw herself upon my neck in tears".

Writings(selection)

Emil Preetorius: a life for art (1883-1973) . Edited by Michael Buddeberg. Munich 2015. ISBN 978-3-7774-2404-0
Aleksander Ger (Александр Гер): Эмиль Преториус \ Emil Preetorius. Kiev. Zeitschrift. "Iskusstvo". 1912

Emil Preetorius: the scenic work . Berlin, Vienna: Limbach 1941, 3rd extended edition 1944

Eberhard Hölscher: Emil Preetorius. The complete work. Book art, free and applied graphics, type design, stage art, literary creation. Heintze & Blanckertz publishing house, Berlin – Leipzig 1943

Emil Preetorius (afterword): Ten thousand times happiness. Colored picture greetings from Japan. 16 Surimonos from the Emil Preetorius Collection . With explanations by Roger Goepper . Piper, Munich 1959.

Emil Preetorius: Art of the East - Preetorius Collection. Edited by Elisabeth Michaelis. With a contribution by Roger Goepper and Ernst Kühnel. Atlantis Verlag, Zurich 1963.

Emil Preetorius: Munich Memories (1945) , Imprimatur. A yearbook for book lovers. NF VII, Frankfurt am Main 1972

Georg Ohr: Emil Preetorius - Bibliography of illustrated books and portfolios , Imprimatur. A yearbook for book lovers. NF VII, Frankfurt am Main 1972

Curt Tillmann: Emil Preetorius - Bibliography of book covers , imprimatur. A yearbook for book lovers. NF VII, Frankfurt am Main 1972

Walter Heist et al .: Emil Preetorius: graphic artist, set designer, collector . Mainz: Krach, 1976. (Small Mainz Library; Vol. 10). ISBN 3-87439-035-7

Артур Рудзицкий ( Artur Rudsyzkyj ) Эмиль Преториус \ Emil Preetorius - Kiev. - 1996 Ulrike Krone-Balcke: Preetorius, Emil. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 683 f. ( Digitized ).

Documents

Letters by E. Preetorius from 1927–1929 are in the holdings of the Leipzig music publisher CFPeters in the Leipzig State Archives .

In 1943, Preetorius was awarded the Goethe Medal for Art and Science by the Nazi authorities. 1955: Johann Heinrich Merck honored by the city of Darmstadt

Literature by and about Emil Preetorius in the catalog of the German National Library Works by and about Emil Preetorius in the German Digital Library Official personnel list of the Munich Academy of Fine Arts (PDF file; 141 kB) Poster example Partial estate in the Bavarian State Library Individual records [ edit | Edit source ] ↑ Jump up to: a b c Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon of the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 464. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the German Association of Artists since its foundation in 1903 / Preetorius, Emil ( Memento des Originals from March 4, 2016 on the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on December 14, 2015) i