Thursday, July 9:
A prolonged struggle against melancholy, aroused in me by two dreams. In the first I saw Hans, with a pale face but a kind expression on it. I presented Daniella to him and wanted to tell him about the way in which I had tried to bring her up; he did not speak, but looked at me lovingly and kindly. Then I was in a hotel room with Marie Muchanoff, and she was in tears as she took leave of me. I was sobbing; she said, “Why am I crying? In a month I am going to die.”
R. receives a letter and a photograph from Frau Materna, highly recommended by Herr Scaria. Attractive, if you like, but so ungainly! A Hamlet-like mood overcomes him; he almost loses all inclination to concern himself with these people. But shortly after writing the last lines, I am shown that one should never give way to vexation through making the acquaintance of three singers. In Frau Grün from Coburg we have made a real discovery: the voice is lovely and her whole character reveals a good musician and a fine woman. Besides her, a good bass and a good baritone (Fasolt and Donner). The fragments from Tannhäuser sung by Frau Grün move me profoundly. I do not know why Tannhäuser, of all R.'s works, affects me most deeply.
The many things we heard before this encouraging experience had not been very pleasant. Richter told us that a representative of the Neue Freie Presse in Vienna was now here and had asked him for news, whereupon Richter, to the man's utter consternation, had told him his opinion of this newspaper, which from the very beginning had published nothing but scandalous reports about our undertaking. Then Richter tells me of an article in the Börsen-Courier which deals maliciously with the singers and the sacrifices they are making in our behalf, and which adds that I (Frau Cosima Wagner) will now no longer have any cause to doubt the keenness and self-sacrifice of these people. The last words are printed in quotation marks, so as to give the impression that I had said some such thing, thereby offending the singers and possibly stopping them from coming here. Very pitiful stuff, and the way they always drag me in, in God's name!