Karolina Elizaveta Ivanovskaya ( Polish: Karolina Elżbieta Iwanowska ; February 8, 1819 - March 9, 1887 ), the brightest Princess Wittgenstein , a Catholic writer, wife of Prince Nikolai Petrovich Wittgenstein , lived with her from 1848 to 1861. composer Franz Liszt .
She was born in the village of Monastyryshche of the Lipovetsky district , in the estate of her grandfather on mother Leon Podosky, who was related to the Gniezno archbishop Gabriel Podosky . Father Peter Ivanovsky was one of the richest residents of Kiev . Parents lived apart due to the fact that the mother considered their marriage a misalliance [1] .
In 1836, the wedding of Carolina with Prince Nikolai Wittgenstein (1812-1864), the youngest son of Field Marshal P. Kh. Wittgenstein, was played at the Podolsk estate of Voronintsy . As with parents, the marriage was unsuccessful. Soon after the birth of the daughter of Mary (1837), the couple parted.
In 1847, in the hall of Kiev University of St. Princess Vladimir Wittgenstein first saw Franz Liszt [1] . She invited him to stay in Voronintsy, where a year later, together with him and her daughter, she permanently left for Europe to get the pope to divorce her husband and get permission to marry the composer.
The troubles of divorce took a long 14 years, partly due to the fact that her husband resisted giving her the right to raise her daughter. All this time, Carolina accompanied Liszt, who devoted many symphonic poems and other works to her. They lived mainly in Weimar . Finally, in 1861, news came from the Vatican that formalities with a divorce were settled. Carolina insisted that the marriage with Liszt be widely publicized and held in Rome.
“Everything was ready for marriage, the altar of the church was hung with flower garlands, ceremonial candles were prepared, Liszt and the princess confessed and communed the day before in the aristocratic church of San Carlo, the marriage was to take place in the same church on October 22, at 6 o’clock in the morning” [2] . On the eve of the ceremony, late at night, a message came from Russia that Prince Wittgenstein had revoked his marriage license. At the same time, revenues from the Podolian estates of the princess were arrested, which put her in a difficult financial situation.
The princess accepted this blow as the will of God. Despite the fact that later the divorce did take place, she flatly refused to legitimize the “sinful relationship” with Liszt [1] . Since that time, their relationship has become Platonic and consisted mainly of a regular exchange of letters. Carolina left to live in Rome , where polemic writings on religious topics (some of which were included in the Index of Banned Books [3] ) earned her reputation as “ Sibyls from Babuino Street”. Berlioz , with whom she also corresponded, dedicated the opera The Trojans to her.
Princess Wittgenstein outlived Liszt for less than a year. Their correspondence is one of the most important sources for studying the composer's life and work. Her daughter Maria (1837–1920) married Prince Constantine Victor Hohenlohe- Schillingsfürst (1828–1896) [4] and, having become rich, did much to popularize List's heritage, and she also founded the Liszt House Museum in Weimar.
V. Pikul told about Carolina’s romance with the composer in the historical miniature “Requiem of the Last Love”. In the musical and biographical tape “ Endless Song ” (1960), she played the role of Cappuccino , and in the Soviet-Hungarian film “ Dreams of Love ” (1970) - Ariadne Shengelaya .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Polish Muse of Liszt | The newspaper "Day"
- ↑ V.V. Stasov. Articles about music. Volume 5. Moscow: Music, 1990. p. 47.
- ↑ Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1949
- ↑ Among their children, statesmen Conrad and Gottfried Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst.