Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of February 4, 1870

Overview

Wagner recovers pleasure in composition while shaping the orchestral prelude to Goetterdaemmerung, and he and Cosima are delighted when they play through the new material. Political news from Bavaria also lifts their spirits, as the king supports Hohenlohe against clerical pressure. The evening’s Aristophanes reading connects their domestic routine to Nietzsche’s ideas about Socrates and Greek tragedy.

Content

Friday, February 4:

R. is again taking pleasure in his work; he is working out the orchestral Prelude to Götterdämmerung (violin accompaniment to the Siegfried theme). We play it and are delighted with it.

Pleasure in the King of Bavaria because he is supporting Prince Hohenlohe and refusing the Upper Chamber’s Address. In the evening R. reads me The Frogs by Aristophanes, in connection with our discussions on the lecture (“Socrates and Greek Tragedy”).