General rehearsal: R. not feeling well; we go with Frau Wesendonck. Many friends are there, and there is great emotion (Prof. HelmholtzProfessor Hermann von Helmholtz (1821 – 1894), physician, physiologist and physicist, one of the most influential natural scientists of his time. More is constantly in tears listening to the divine things). I am indescribably shaken; the entire conclusion is essentially a paraphrase of the unwritten words [1]: “Not the glitter of gold, etc., blessed in both sorrow and joy, let only love exist”. – The entire world of gods, natural forces, and heroes all seem to exist solely to glorify the noblest woman [2]!
At the end of the rehearsal, R. says to me: “The awakener is approaching; there must I always think of you, you have awakened everything in me again, love, creation, everything…”
He longs to return to the children. We dine at home, I make a few visits, and in the evening, a soirée at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in honour of Frau Materna. (R. decides on Schroetter for the role of Siegfried.)
[1] Cosima refers here to the final, purely instrumental ending of Götterdämmerung (in the six previous versions Brünnhilde sang the finale).
[2] In the margin the note: “The Victory Column!!”
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins.