Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of November 3, 1872

Overview

Church services and hymns give the day a devout tone, though one departing peasant woman reminds the speaker that not everyone is moved in the same way. A stack of letters arrives, and she answers several friends while also passing along R.’s idea of staging Lohengrin in Berlin for Bayreuth’s benefit. In the evening the copyists visit and R. performs passages from Die Walküre for them, but their opinions about Munich’s Tristan singers are discouraging. The children also write to their father, keeping family life woven through the musical talk.

Content

Sunday, November 3:

To church. Councilor Kraussold preaches on the connection between the Reformation and the present-day church movement; all of it excellent, but I noticed a peasant woman leaving the church in the middle of the sermon, and that told me everything! The hymns move me very much. How I enjoy singing with the congregation, and I recall the trials undergone amid these sounds by the Protestant community.

Many letters received: Father, Krockow, Marie Schleinitz, Math. Wesendonck, Claire, Judith Mendès, the last very despondent; invitation from Clemens to his wedding. I write to Frau V. Meyendorff, Marie Dönhoff, Marie Schleinitz, and pass on to the last R.'s suggestion of staging a new production of Lohengrin in Berlin, which he would conduct for the benefit of Bayreuth.

In the evening our copyists. R. plays and sings to them from Die Walküre. They have not much that is edifying to say about the singers in the Munich Tristan. The children write to their father.