Who holds o'er all my faculties control
Has o'er the outer world no power.
Existence lies a load upon my breast,
Life is a curse, and death a longed-for rest."
The overture, in its revised form, was produced in Zurich, January 23, 1855, at a concert of the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft. Two days later, Liszt wrote to the composer: "You were quite right in arranging a new score of your overture. If you have succeeded in making the middle part a little more pliable, this work, significant as it was before, must have gained considerably. Be kind enough to have a copy made, and send it me as soon as possible. There will probably be some orchestral concerts here, and I should like to give this overture at the end of February."
Wagner sent the score, with a letter in which he said: "Herewith, dearest Franz, you receive my remodelled 'Faust' overture, which will appear very insignificant to you by the side of your 'Faust' symphony. To me the composition is interesting only on account of the time from which it dates; this reconstruction has again endeared it to me; and, with regard to the latter, I am childish enough to ask you to compare it very carefully with the first version, because I should like you to take cognizance of the effect of my experience and of the more refined feeling I have gained. In my opinion, new versions of this kind show most distinctly the spirit in which one has learned to work and the coarsenesses which one has cast off. You will be better pleased with the middle part. I was, of course, unable to introduce a new motive, because that would have involved a remodelling of almost the whole work; all I was able to do was to develop the sentiment a little more broadly, in the form of a kind of enlarged cadence. Gretchen, of course, could not be introduced, only Faust himself."[184]
"A SIEGFRIED IDYL" [185]
In the summer of 1870 (August 25th) Wagner was married at Lucerne, Switzerland, to Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt and the Comtesse d'Agoult, and the divorced wife of Hans von Bülow.[186] Siegfried Wagner, the son of Richard and Cosima, was born at Triebschen, near Lucerne, June 6, 1869. In a letter dated June 25, 1870, two months before his marriage to Cosima, Wagner wrote to a friend: "She [Cosima] has defied every disapprobation and taken upon herself every condemnation. She has borne to me a wonderfully beautiful and vigorous boy, whom I could boldly call 'Siegfried': he is now growing, together with my work, and gives me a new, long life [Wagner was then fifty-seven years old], which at last has attained a meaning. Thus we get along without the world, from which we have retired entirely.... But now listen; you will, I trust, approve of the sentiment which leads us to postpone our visit until I can introduce to you the mother of my son as my wedded wife." [187]
Cosima, according to Lina Ramann, was born (in Bellagio) "at Christmas," 1837. The "Siegfried Idyl" was written by Wagner as a birthday gift to his wife, and it was first performed December 24, 1871, as an aubade, on the steps of Wagner's villa at Triebschen; the orchestra was a small group of players gathered from the neighborhood. Hans Richter played the trumpet, and Wagner himself conducted.