Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of February 20, 1873

Overview

The pattern of poor sleep and illness persists, with the narrator spending time managing children and visits to the new house. Incoming letters and gossip reveal the social noise surrounding Wagner’s circle, including petty hostility and public chatter. The evening returns to literary reading, which supplies a small, shared delight.

Content

Thursday, February 20:

Boni still ill, but looking somewhat better. Proof sheets of the score of Das Rheingold arrive, and R. occupies himself for a while with this refreshing task.

In the afternoon went with the children to the stretch of ice to watch Lusch; R. tries it too. Rus rushes at his skates to pull them off and snaps when one tries to restrain him; the man says, “The dog is too faithful; you can’t go skating.” Much laughter from the children. Letters from the conductor Levi, very artless. He had begged R. not to refuse to allow the Munich theater to participate, and R. replied; now comes this letter, asking R. to come and see his performance of Die Meistersinger in Munich, which the newspapers everywhere are talking about. Letter from Marie Muchanoff; she says the Emperor did not give R. an audience because he could not do such a thing to the King of Saxony, who goes wild every time he even hears Wagner’s name! In the evening we read the Panchatantra, with real enchantment.