My New Novel: “The Disciple”

My forthcoming novel, The Disciple: A Wagnerian Tale of the Gilded Age, may be my best book. A prequel to The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York (2023), it’s already available via pre-order. (And if you order both books, you get a discount.)

My story tracks the prodigious American impact of Richard Wagner’s protégé Anton Seidl. It challenges obstinate stereotypes of Gilded Age luxury and decadence. Publication, on March 24, coincides with the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Tristan und Isolde – whose 1886 American premiere, conducted by Seidl, begins my chapter one.  

Cloaked in mystery, Seidl materialized in the New World as Wagner’s personal emissary. He commanded musical New York and toured widely, everywhere received with awed deference. In Brooklyn, Laura Langford’s Seidl Society presented summertime Seidl concerts on Coney Island fourteen times weekly. Working women arrived in special railroad cars; Black orphans were regaled with roast chicken, ice cream, and the Tannhäuser March. A clairvoyant theosophist, Langford identified Seidl as a “chela” and traced the ceremonies of Parsifal to the Himalayas. Seidl’s appeal was uncanny; at the American premiere of Tristan und Isolde, women stood on their chairs and “screamed their delight.” At his funeral, women clasped elbows to force their way into the mobbed Metropolitan Opera House, a spectacle of chaos. His Manhattan friends—including Antonin Dvořák, whose New World Symphony he premiered—were legion. And yet Seidl remained a man apart, afflicted with secret sorrows.   

ADVANCE PRAISE:  

“Joseph Horowitz’s captivating novel of the Gilded Age comes alive through the saga of an overlooked genius: Wagner’s protégé Anton Seidl. He transfigures the vibrant world of American classical music at the dawn of the 20th century into a compelling narrative commanding in detail. And he yet again challenges our mounting cultural amnesia.”  — Thomas Hampson

“For several decades now, Joseph Horowitz has been our Cicerone through the vibrant scenery of classical music in Gilded Age America. Such is his love for that almost forgotten chapter of our history that he felt moved to transpose his unmatched knowledge of the era to the more easily accessible plane of fiction. The Disciple moves dexterously among New York, Bayreuth, and Brooklyn, glimpsing a memorable rendezvous of Wagnerism and Feminism. Those who love the cultural history of New York will come away both enriched and enlightened.”   — Hans Rudolf Vaget (Shedd Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature Emeritus, Smith College)   

“The Disciple will astonish readers with its insights into an extraordinary but little-known American artistic epoch. The re-creation of Antonin Dvorak is absolutely magical – poetic, tender, funny, irresistible. It evinces Horowitz’s love for the man and his music, brought to life in the most fascinating and beautiful way.” –JoAnn Falletta, Music Director, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

“Joseph Horowitz’s knowledge of the great Anton Seidl—one of the most charismatic figures of the Gilded Age—is second to none. He also possesses a remarkable capacity to weave a compelling fictional narrative. I learned a lot about Seidl, about the social milieu that he seduced, and about the thrilling musical life that he dominated.”  — Barry Millington (chief music critic for The London Evening Standard and editor of The Wagner Journal)