Many music lovers know the famous story of Richard Wagner's birthday present to his beloved wife, Cosima, - the performance of a new composition in the stairwell outside her bedroom on Christmas morning 1870.
Modern listeners know this intimate piece as the “Siegfried Idyll.” Scholars who have read Cosima's diary also know that the baton Wagner used to conduct the ensemble was engraved to memorialize the event- the date of the performance inscribed along one face and the title of the work along the opposite side. Only a handful of people know the fate of the baton.
Listen to Hannah Jo Smith and Anita Breckbill, local music scholars and baton guardians, explain what happened to this treasured little wooden stick after the World War II, how it found its way to Lincoln and how it will find its way back home again to Bayreuth, Germany.
The presentation will take place in the meeting room of the Anderson Library, 3635 Touzalin Avenue, on Wednesday, June 6, at 3 p.m. This event is open to the public.
For more information contact:
David Dyke
drdrdmd@me.com