Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of January 27, 1875

Overview

On Richter’s wedding day, R. spoke at length about religion, insisting that faith for ordinary people must remain simple, childlike, and consoling, and that once such belief is broken it cannot be restored. The rest of the day moved between study, errands, and an improvised outing: the children skated, R. took Evchen to Rollwenzel, and I went with Fidi to the theater, which impressed me deeply. The evening culminated in Haydn and then the final act of "Tristan," with Isolde’s lament moving me beyond words in R.’s singing.

Content

Wednesday, January 27:

Richter’s wedding day!

In the morning R. says to me: “I am becoming more and more convinced of the truth of Voltaire’s saying that religion cannot be too absurd for the common people, and that Christianity cannot be separated from its Jewish roots. The Father in Heaven belongs to that idea, and a religion must remain naive, childlike, and simple; the benevolent god who has arranged everything properly, even when we do not understand it, is for the common man the only consolation, the only inducement to resignation. Of course, once this faith is shattered, it can never be restored.”

R. studies with Herr Glatz, and after that we pay a call together. After lunch the three eldest children on the ice, R. with Evchen to Rollwenzel, I with Fidi to the theater, all done on the spur of the moment! The theater makes a great impression on me.

In the evening a Haydn symphony, then I ask for something from Tristan, and we have the third act, from Tristan’s vision to the end. Indescribable impression, most of all today from Isolde’s exclamations of grief immediately after Tristan’s death, which are inexpressibly moving as sung by R.