Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of May 16, 1874

Overview

Practical tasks and correspondence fill the day, with Wagner still not fully well but able to make progress on orchestration. The evening finishes Titus Andronicus, and the most memorable amusement comes from the household cocks singing together, which prompts a playful comparison to the trumpets in Lohengrin.

Content

Saturday, May 16:

Wrote all kinds of letters, to Warsaw, Berlin, etc.; besides that still many tasks of arrangement. R. orchestrates a page of his score, but is still not feeling entirely well. In the evening we finish Titus Andronicus in great astonishment.

In the morning our two cocks amused us greatly by singing an entire duet. “The two trumpeters in Lohengrin,” says R. . . .