Anton Seidl collection of musical papers, 1870-1943

Anton Seidl was a noted Wagnerian conductor and chorus master. He was born in Pest, Hungary, was a member of Wagner's household from 1872 to 1878, during which time he served as Wagner's musical secretary and later as conductor of the Richard Wagner Theater in Beyreuth. He was a close friend of Wagner's and had much to do with the spread of his music and influence through Europe and America.

Conductor Anton Seidl was born in Pest, Hungary on 7 May 1850. His early years are unrecorded and some suppose him to be the natural son of Franz Liszt. In 1870 he entered the Leipzig Conservatorium where he studied music under Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel Oscar Paul and Ernst Friedrich Richter. In that same year he returned to Pest to pursue studies with Hans Richter a musician who had been assisting Richard Wagner in preparing the score of Die Meistersinger. Upon Richter's recommendation Seidl was engaged by Wagner in 1872 to help him in his work at Bayreuth where Seidl became a member of the Wagner household. He was empolyed in making the first copy of the Nibelungen score and during the six years he was with Wagner helped to complete the scores of Die Gotterdammerung and Parsifal. Wagner entrusted to Seidl many of the details of the first Bayreuth festival in 1876. In 1879 Seidl was appointed conductor at the Leipzig Opera House where in teh season of 1881-1882 he conducted the first performances of the nibelungen cycle ever heard in Berlin. The following season he was appointed conductor of the travelling Wagner Theatre with which he toured through England and most of Europe. In 1883 he became conductor of the Bremen Opera House. On 29 February 1884 he married Auguste Kraus a singer who had been associated with the Travelling Wagner Theatre.

In 1885, Seidl was invited by Edmund C. Stanton director of teh Metropolitan Opera House to come to New York as conductor of German opera. On 23 November 1885 Seidl debuted at the Metropolitan with a successful performance of Lohengrin. After that time to his death he lived in New York and in 1891 became a naturalized American citizen. When German opera was temporarily dropped at the Metropolitan in 1891 Seidl became conductor of the Philharmonic Society of New York. DUring 1895-97 seasons he again conducted German opera at the Metroplitan and in 1897 visited London and Bayreuth to conduct special performances. A movement was inaugurated in New York to forma permanent Seidl orchestra and to guarantee its expenses but these plans were interrupted by Seidl's sudden death by ptomaine poisoning on 28 March 1898.