Category: Cosima Wagner Diaries

The whole day and evening devoted to Herr Hill; R. reminds me that I had remarked, after the first few bars he sang in Schwerin, “This is the most remarkable of them all.” An unusually powerful personality with great fire—-in short, all the qualities which R. needs. — He complained…

Paid some (card) calls. Strange mood in spite of all my activity—it finds, expression in my taking up my old favorite Eugenie de Guerin again. One could scarcely imagine a calling as different from mine as hers, and yet no one lies as close to my heart as this Breton…

Worked with Lusch, R. on his score, is pleased with the salon, unfortunately not an unalloyed pleasure, since domestic difficulties are increasing.  In the evening Frau Grün again comes over from Coburg; she sings “Brünnhilde’s Awakening,” which causes a certain amount of embarrassment, since she cannot sing Brünnhilde.

Frau v. Schleinitz sends us a photograph of the Menzel water color sold in support of Bayreuth: very peculiar! —  R. works; no further news about singers; domestic unpleasantnesses; in the evening rehearsed Gunther with Herr Alexis. (Wrote to my father.)

R. reads me the printed letter of an unnamed leading figure in the Catholic party to a French bishop, which sounds really ominous for Germany. In this connection R. quotes Cromwell’s words to his soldiers at Worcester: “Put your trust in God and keep your powder dry.”  We stay at…

R. again dreamed his traditional old dream about his wife, whom he did not know how to fit into his new life, until the problem was solved by his waking up thinking, “But she is dead.” — R. works morning and afternoon; I do a lot of work with Lusch…