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In his lecture on the Delights and Dangers of Ambiguity, conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) describes Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) Tristan und Isolde (1857-1859) as "the very crux of ambiguity-the turning point after which music could never be the same; it points musical history directly toward the upcoming crisis of the twentieth century."1 Harmonically, Tristan truly takes music to a depth of unresolved cadences never before heard in music. However, it is perhaps the striving towards an unattainable object (in this case, the love between Tristan and Isolde) that is the more important aspect of Wagner's opera. Dissatisfied will, unfulfilled longing, and chivalric love all manifest themselves in Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde. These three aspects of the impassioned romance between the lovers Tristan and Isolde lead opera, music, and the Romantic era into the ambiguous and ever-striving Modern era.
Richard Wagner experienced an important life crisis that directly influenced his writing of Tristan und Isolde. Though having long been married to the actress Wil- helmine "Minna" Planer (1809-1866), Wagner struggled with romantic feelings towards Mathilde Wesendonck (1828-1902), the wife of one of his musical admirers.2
The extent to which Mathilde Wesendonck inspired Wagner to write Tristan yet remains conjectural... Nevertheless, Wagner so frequently mentioned Tristan that its importance appears to be deeper than his comments to Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt (1811-1866): It was a work which 'lay so near my heart'; Tristan is 'a being utterly consumed by love'; in it, it is 'Eros who holds sway.3
Though it is still a matter of conjecture whether Mathilde and Wagner ever had an affair, it is inarguable that he had repressed feelings for her, and that these same feelings occurred simultaneously with his temporary abandonment of The Ring and his subsequent decision to compose Tristan.
His relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck had reached a crisis which made life seem intolerable, and his experience of torment of repressed passion led him to seek the sublimation of this experience in his creative work. This is probably the more genuine reason behind his decision to abandon temporarily work on the Ring cycle and to concentrate on writing an opera of normal proportions in order to relieve his pecuniary straits.4
This unfulfilled longing in Wagner's personal life...