A Wagner Matinee
by Willa Cather
What happens when a single afternoon reconnects someone with a life they thought was left behind forever? A Wagner Matinee follows Aunt Georgiana as she journeys from the Nebraska frontier back to Boston to settle a family estate. There, an unexpected visit to a concert stirs memories of another time and another life, setting the stage for a quiet and deeply human story about sacrifice, memory, and the enduring influence of music. First published in 1904, it remains one of Willa Cather’s most admired short stories.
We hope you’ll enjoy A Wagner Matinee as part of our continuing effort to preserve and celebrate classic literature.
Behind the Story
- Willa Cather drew upon her own experiences growing up in Nebraska to create stories that captured the beauty, hardship, and resilience of frontier life.
- A Wagner Matinee first appeared in the February 1904 issue of Everybody’s Magazine, one of America’s most popular illustrated monthly magazines during the early twentieth century. The story was later collected in Cather’s first short story collection, The Troll Garden (1905).
- A Wagner Matinee helped establish the literary voice that would later produce such classics as O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Ántonia, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning One of Ours.
- William Coon has narrated classic works by Henry James, Anton Chekhov, Philip K. Dick, Richard Connell, and Bram Stoker as well as contemporary titles like The Incurables by Mark Brazaitis and First Son: The Biography of Richard M. Daley by Keith Koeneman.
- The title,A Wagner Matinee, refers to the music of German composer Richard Wagner, whose operas transformed nineteenth-century classical music. Several of his works—including Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, The Flying Dutchman, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and the Ring cycle—are woven into the story’s concert program.
If you enjoyed A Wagner Matinee, we invite you to explore more stories in our Fireside Voices series.
Show Notes
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Credits
- Story Reader: William Coon
- Announcer: Vince Cowley
- Story audio Provided by Librivox.org and is in the public domain.