Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of July 27, 1872

Overview

Despite the closeness of the weather, she manages to work in the garden with the children and later continues reading Faust. A difficult verse puzzles both her and R., and they are amused by their shared uncertainty, while a notice about a concert only strengthens their contempt for Mendelssohn's treatment of Sophocles. News from the Wagner circle, a letter from Nietzsche, and a visit from Herr Diener keep the day full of musical and intellectual interest, ending with rehearsal work on Rheingold.

Content

Saturday, July 27:

Very close and hot, but I managed to work in the garden with the children. In the afternoon I continue reading Faust, and amusingly enough a verse which I do not understand R. also does not understand: “wenn wir zum Guten dieser Welt gelangen, dann heisst das Bess’re Trug und Wahn.”

The program of a concert in which a chorus from Oedipus at Colonus by Mendelssohn was performed brings the text of this chorus before our eyes again, and we cannot cease to wonder at the stupidity of Mendelssohn’s music. “Sophocles,” says R., “undoubtedly had a folk song in mind, which he altered to suit his requirements.”

The newspapers again report signs of life in the Academic Wagner Society: Herr Dr. Lang is a member and is writing a biography of Wagner in the periodical published by this society!

Prof. Nietzsche writes to R. that he is going to Munich for the university celebrations, i.e., for Tristan. Arrival of Herr Diener, whom R. likes. In the evening went through a part of Das Rheingold with Herr Rubinstein.