Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of January 5, 1872

Overview

The day begins with Wagner asking the narrator to let go of yesterday’s tension, and he works in a buoyant mood, singing from the Rheingold material as if the house itself were revived by creation. He is delighted by the family life around him and speaks warmly of their marriage and the happiness of remembering earlier hardships from a position of success. That mood is abruptly broken when news arrives that his sister Luise has died, a shock they had not even expected.

Content

Friday, January 5:

Spoke much about the King; what shall we still experience through him? A lady from Transylvania sends R. thanks and blessings for the impressions she owes to him, Amalie von Konyvas-Toth, in Torda. R. works, and laughs at my being so happy about it: he says, 'Yes, I know, I am just a composing machine.'

R. sends for me and sings me the second verse of the Rhinemaidens. He corrects something which he thinks sounds too 'Altenburgian' - 'for what is very bold must seem natural.' At lunch he becomes very high-spirited and says how lovely it is that we are married, 'that all this is here, the children and you - now I enjoy talking about my earlier days, for nessun maggior piacer, che ricordarsi del tempo infelice nella gloria.' He goes into town and returns with the news that his sister Luise is dead. We had not even heard that she was ill.