31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN (DAY 22)
When visiting his son-in-law, Richard Wagner, at the Palazzo Vendramin on the Grand Canal of Venice, Franz Liszt had a premonition of Wagner’s death and of his coffin being borne away in a funeral gondola. Liszt composed the first version of “La lugubre gondola” in December of 1882. A second version followed in January. In February, Liszt’s vision was fulfilled: Wagner was dead, being borne down the canal in a coffin. Don’t mess with Franz Liszt.
Here are both versions of Liszt’s haunted barcarolle:
John Adams orchestrated the second of these and called it “The Black Gondola:”