Category: Cosima Wagner Diaries

Breakfast with our friends in the summerhouse, conversation about Berlioz: according to R., his works could be played in open-air concerts, to which the whole cultured world would flock, but they are not easy to fit into concerts at which Mozart and Beethoven are played.  The Germans rightly resist such…

In the afternoon a note tells us that Prof. Nietzsche is here, but lying ill in his hotel, the Sonne. R. goes there and brings him back to our house at once. He soon recovers, and we spend a cheerful evening together. But what he tells us about the newspapers…

Will the ships go to Spain? That is the present political question. Besides that, the Bishop of Cologne is being sent to prison. A very curious situation—I fear a general conflagration against North Germany.  In the afternoon, while waiting for friend Klindworth, R. plays passages from Isouard’s Cendrillon and tells…

R. somewhat better, but still very run down. Family lunch after work with the children. R. is able to do some orchestrating. In the evening visit from Frau Materna and her husband; she is hoarse, but she is given the part of Brünnhilde—may God grant His blessing!

R. very umwell, he seems to have caught cold yesterday, and singing is always a great strain on him. I alone accompany our friends to the railroad station; I am glad of Standhartner’s love for Richard and his delight in what he calls R.’s good fortune. Comfortingly he finds him…

A little tired from yesterday evening; all the same, R. works, but we stay quietly at home. In the afternoon music the divine Meistersinger, with memories of the times in which it was composed, and the ending of Götterdämmerung. In the evening alone with our friends; conversation about Herr Brahms…