Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of February 16, 1877

Overview

She spends the day arranging the hall, enjoying R.'s praise for her precision, then joins a dress rehearsal and a long walk. Later, while musicians play selected passages, R. turns to the problem of how a musical theme should first appear and how it should be handled when it returns.

Content

Friday, February 16:

Setting things up in the hall. R. admires my “correctness” and is delighted by this little activity.

In the afternoon a dress rehearsal, then we go for a long walk. Our two musicians in the evening; I ask for Götterdämmerung, the Norns’ scene, and Siegfried’s parting from Brünnhilde.

While this is being played, R. very hastily leaves the room and, when he returns, whispers to me: “I have made a note: Kundry can only laugh and scream; she does not know true laughter.”

R. gives as the main rule in performing his works that a theme must be very clearly accentuated on its first appearance, but when it occurs merely as a reminiscence, in order to underline the significance of something else, it should simply be played flowingly.