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Neil Crory finds his way to Wagner's final destination.

Article Excerpt
ON FEBRUARY 13, 1883, RICHARD WAGNER DIED OF A heart attack while wintering in Venice. He had arrived five months earlier, and, after a few days at the Hotel Europa, taken up residence at Ca'Vendramin Calergi, a magnificent, early 16th-century palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal. In declining health before arriving in Venice, the German composer had already suffered a series of acute angina attacks in Bayreuth, probably exacerbated by the pressures that summer of mounting the 16 premiere performances of his final music-drama, Parsifal.

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Wagner's apartments were located on the mezzanine level of the palazzo's White Wing, an early 17th-century addition with large windows overlooking both a spacious garden--a rarity in Venice--and the Grand Canal, or Canalazzo as the Venetians call it. To the side, windows survey a small, picturesque inner courtyard. The composer's suite consisted of 15 to 18 rooms, large enough to accommodate his family and entourage, including his wife, Cosima, their four children (Daniela, Isolde, Eva and Siegfried), a governess, a tutor, a cook, a chambermaid, a...

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