Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of March 15, 1870

Overview

Nietzsche reports that Bonn has chosen Hiller for the music festival, ending Wagner’s possible involvement there without disturbing his cheerful mood. Wagner turns instead to the difficult problem of Siegfried’s arrival, explaining his refusal to make the scene merely spectacular. Friendly letters from the Schures and an evening of correspondence place artistic disappointment inside a steadier rhythm of work and sociability.

Content

Tuesday, March 15:

Very cold. Letter from Prof. Nietzsche: in Bonn they have unanimously chosen F. Hiller as conductor of the music festival! So that is that. R. in cheerful mood, gets down to Siegfried’s arrival, which has caused him a lot of work. He did not wish to make something very spectacular out of it, and he has assumed that the introduction will have set the basic mood, that we will know that Siegfried is on the Rhine and that the talk of the Gibichungs is just a parenthesis. In the afternoon letters from Schuré and his wife, very nice and friendly. In the evening we write letters, R. and I (to Champfleury, Villot, Schuré, Eckert, etc.).