A Wagner Matinee
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A Wagner Matinee is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Everybody's Magazine in February 1904[1].
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[edit] Plot summary
Clark receives a letter from his uncle who lives in Red Willow County, Nebraska, saying his wife is coming to Boston to sort out some inheritance papers. Whilst there, Clark takes her to the opera, to see a Richard Wagner performance. She is on the verge of tears. The "Prize Song" reminds her of a German man she once knew. After the performance, she does not want to budge and starts sobbing. Clark understands; she will have to get back to the drudge of humdrum farm life.
[edit] Characters
- Clark, the narrator. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
- Howard Carpenter, the narrator's uncle.
- Aunt Georgiana. She worked as a music teacher at the Boston Conservatory in the 1860s, until she met Howard and decided to move to Nebraska with him.
- Mrs Springer, the narrator's landlady.
- Maggie, Aunt Georgiana's daughter.
- A German peasant from Bayreuth.
[edit] Allusions to other works
- Through Aunt Georgiana, allusions made are to William Shakespeare, Carl Maria von Weber's Euryanthe, Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, Tristan und Isolde, Der Ring des Nibelungen and Siegfried, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore.
[edit] References
- ^ Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, page 242
