Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of April 30, 1870

Overview

Despite miserable weather, Wagner completes the passage around Hagen’s Watch and Bruennhilde’s contemplation of the ring, clarifying that it functions more like a parenthetical cadenza than an intermezzo. The household prepares to lose a flawed manservant whose Knecht Ruprecht performance is remembered fondly. Ivanhoe and a legal letter from Simson close the day with the news that Cosima must soon present herself to the priest while Hans has returned to Florence.

Content

Saturday, April 30:

Wretched weather, but R. works and finishes the intermezzo (“Hagen’s Watch”—Brünnhilde contemplating the ring), which, as he says, is more a sort of cadenza, like a parenthesis, not an intermezzo.

Our manservant is leaving us; apart from his Knecht Ruprecht nothing was good about him, but that was excellent. In the evening R. reads me Ivanhoe. Letter from Herr Simson in Berlin: in 4 weeks I must present myself to the priest, and then the proceedings will begin. Hans has returned to Florence.