Six years ago today. Photos by me. You may click on the photos for larger views.
Update: It has come to my attention that March 26, 2006 was a Sunday. I wrote the item below for my blog on March 25, but was unable to post it until the 26th.
Saturday was a free day in Lucerne for the musicians, so many of them went gadding about, shopping, skiing, museum-hopping. A few visited one of classical music’s holy shrines: Richard Wagner’s home in Lucerne, pictured above as it looked on Saturday around, well, I’d say 12:30-ish. It was about a 35-minute walk from the Palace Hotel, where half of the orchestra and a certain music critic were staying.
The house, known as Tribschen, is now home to a modest museum. The cashier’s room was Wagner’s bedroom. King Ludwig II, Wagner’s patron, slept in the so-called Green study, a small room now with glass cases holding Wagnerian mementos and old etchings on the walls. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche also visited here, as did Franz Liszt. Wagner’s old Erard piano (on which he completed “Die Meistersinger”) sits in the living room, along with the original manuscript of “Siegfried-Idyll.” The composer lived in Lucerne from 1866-1872, married Cosima von Bülow, Liszt’s daughter, in a Lucerne church, and his son, Siegfried, was born at Tribschen. Siegfried’s room, by the way, is now the repository of stacks of folding chairs.
Approaching Tribschen
Inside Tribschen. Wagner's Erard piano is in the corner.
Manuscripts in Wagner's hand. I believe that is 'Siegfried Idyll' on the bottom.
The office at Tribschen
Looking back at Lucerne from Tribschen
Classical Life 