Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of December 26, 1880

Overview

R. woke with a slight headache from festivity but remained cheerful, wrote a detailed letter about the dogs, and then walked with her before welcoming Seidl from Leipzig. Lunch talk returned to the Berlin project and his frustration at public misunderstandings over von Hulsen and court performances, while later he worked on his score, revisited the beauty of the Christmas tableau as something living beyond paint, and complained in the evening of how dull their friends had become.

Content

Sunday, December 26:

R. has a slight headache, calls himself an old toper, but is in good spirits and writes a detailed “dog letter” to Bremen, since the good news is being brought to Faf on the hill, and now something must be done for Marke.

At one o’clock, in very mild weather, R. and I go for a walk in the palace gardens, then we welcome Seidl, our old member of the “Nibelungen Kanzlei,” from Leipzig. Our conversation at lunch is concerned with the Berlin project, and R. expresses his annoyance over the fact that it is now being said that von Hülsen has withdrawn, and nobody is aware that he, R., did not wish the Ring to be performed at the Court Opera.

In the afternoon R. and I go for a walk in the palace gardens with Seidl and Joukowsky. Yesterday morning R. spoke to me of the beauty of the tableau vivant and wondered whether the painting could reflect all its beauty, for it had been a living thing, whereas a painting conveys only the memory of a vision. In the evening R. complains about how boring our friends are. In the afternoon he worked on his score.