Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of December 17, 1873

Overview

A large pile of old opera music arrives from Schure, prompting an evening of listening to Auber and Catel, especially Semiramis, which impresses them with its nobility and refinement. The writer laments the decline of the French nation, while R. replies with characteristic irony about Germans becoming delightful if they had chosen France. Their correspondence also brings a flood of absurd requests, from opera librettos to complete compositions, alongside one especially moving anonymous letter from a Vienna architect who thoughtfully raises acoustical concerns about Bayreuth. The evening mixes amusement, admiration, and a sense of the strange reach of R.’s fame.

Content

Wednesday, December 17:

A huge pile of old opera music arrives from friend Schure, and we spend the evening with Auber’s Tesiocq (nice and witty) and scenes from Semiramis by Catel; this latter work really astounds us with its nobility and refinement. What has become of this French nation, which once produced so much and is now so horribly sterile?

R. writes thanking Schure, saying he wished all the Germans had opted for France; then they would all be delightful people. A lot of nonsensical letters to R.: a student in Alsace asks him to read an opera libretto and write music to it; Grandmongin writes from Paris; Grandmongin a Richard Wagner, “from man to man without distinction of nationality,” etc.

But there is also a very fine anonymous letter from an architect in Vienna who has some doubts concerning the acoustics in the Bayreuth theater and offers advice, but he writes so warmly and enthusiastically that I feel utterly moved. A man in Brussels asks “the giant philosopher” to compose a Macbeth and a King Lear!