Wagner, Richard
Wagner Francesca Gaetana Cosima, nee de Flavigny, Liszt, 1° voto von Bülow, *24 (not 25) December 1837 Como (not Bellagio by Lake Como), †1 April 1930 Bayreuth, German opera director of Hungarian-French origin. She was the natural daughter of F. Liszt (legitimised in 1844) and the French writer, Count. Maria d’Agoult née de Flavigny (1805–1876), wife of H. von Bülow, second wife of Richard Wagner and mother of Siegfried Wagner. She received a thorough general and musical education at a boarding school in Paris, as well as in Berlin, where from 1855, she studied under the supervision of H. von Bülow’s mother, from whom she took piano lessons and whom she married in 1857. The story of an unsuccessful marriage and a turbulent separation (1864) , divorce (18 July 1870) and a relationship with Wagner, which, until legalization in the Protestant church in Lucerne (25 August 1870), resulted in three children – Isolde (1865–1919), Eva (1867–1941) and Siegfried (1869–1930 ), caused a resonance in Europe with the flavour of a moral, social and social scandal. What added spice to this matter was the fact that Bülow, devoted to Wagner, was preparing the world premieres of Tristan and Isolde (1865) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868) at the Hofoper in Munich at that time. Cosima’s enchantment with Wagner after their first meeting with Liszt in Paris (1853) deepened during her visits with Bülow to Wagner in Zurich (1857 and 1858) and during the meeting with the composer in Berlin (1863) that decided about their future relationship. In 1868, Cosima, together with Wagner and her children, as well as her two daughters from her marriage to Bülow, Daniela (1860–1940) and Blandine (1863–1941), lived in a rented house in Tribschen near Lucerne, where they visited, among others, Liszt, G. Semper, Ludwig II of Bavaria and Cosima’s great admirer, F. Nietzsche, whose work Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik (1869–72) owes much to inspiring conversations with Wagner and his wife. On 25 December 1870, in Tribschen, under the baton of H. Richter, the private premiere of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, given to Cosima as a birthday present, took place. In 1872, the Wagner family moved to Bayreuth due to the commencement of the construction of the Festspielhaus theatre, and in 1874, they settled permanently in the Wahnfried villa, which until 1966 was the residence of their children and grandchildren, who took care of the Wagner festival. Cosima Wagner co-directed the festival in 1876 and 1882; after Wagner’s death (1883), she continued to manage the festival until 1906. In December of that year, she suffered an attack of apoplexy and handed over the management of the festival to her son, Siegfried.
Cosima Wagner was one of the heroines of the 19th century, identified with the movement of womenss intellectual liberation and opposition to the dictates of traditional customs. However, unlike her mother, Count d’Agoult (pseudonym: Daniel Stern) and her friend G. Sand, Wagner’s role in European culture did not result from self-creation, but paradoxically from total devotion and dedication of her life to one man and one cause. The first festivals in Bayreuth (Ring des Nibelungen, 1876, Parsifal, 1882, directed by Wagner) were not a fully successful venture in terms of artistic and financial aspects, despite the worldwide publicity and Cosima Wagner’s efforts to obtain funds and favour from the aristocratic and financial elite, to which her husband, the former revolutionary, still had no access. Subsequent festivals devoted to the staging of Parsifal with Cosima’s corrections as the director (1883 and 1884) were of a requiem nature and were an expression of tribute to the composer’s memory. Since 1888, festivals in Bayreuth have gained momentum. Other stage works appeared on stage in Wagner’s staging: Tristan and Iseult, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1888), Tannhäuser (1891), Lohengrin (1894), the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung (in a new staging 1896), and The Wandering Dutchman (1901). Wagner’s productions, excellent in terms of music thanks to an excellent cast of conductors (including H. Richter, H. Levi, F. Mottl, C. Muck, and R. Strauss), did not go beyond theatrical historicism and the “naturalistic illusion” of the first stagings in Munich and Bayreuth. Wagner even used designs by the same set designers (brothers M. and G. Bruckner from Coburg). As a director, in accordance with R. Wagner’s instructions, she emphasised the primacy and dramatic function of the word, imposing a specific “declamation style” on the vocalists. Referring to Wagner’s unrealised concept (Sänger- und Kapellmeisterschule), she organised the Stilbildungschule in 1892 with the aim of preserving the tradition and specificity of the performance of the composer’s dramas. She cooperated with, among others, J. Kniesy, conductor and vocal expert. Both singers (tenors H. Breuer, A. Burgstaller, sopranos A. Bahr-Mildenburg, S. Traubmann, L. Nordica) and conductors (including M. Balling and R. Strauss) benefited from Wagner’s tutoring and consultations. In 1894, Cosima Wagner staged E. Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel und Gretel in Dessau, but her activity was mainly associated with the theatre in Bayreuth, which thanks to her became a stage of lasting importance for the world reception of Wagner’s art.
Literature: C. Wagner Franz Liszt. Ein Gedenkblatt von seiner Tochter, Munich 1911; Cosima Wagner. Die Tagebücher (1869–83), ed and comments M. Gregor-Dellin, D. Mack, 2 vol., Munich 1976, 1977, 21982, English ed. Cosima Wagner’s Diaries, translation and preface G. Skelton, 2 vol., London 1978, 1980; Cosima Wagners Briefe an ihre Tochter Daniela von Bülow 1866–1885, published by M. v. Waldberg, Stuttgart 1933; Cosima Wagner und Houston Stewart Chamberlain im Briefwechsel 1888–1908, published by P. Pretzsch, Leipzig 1934; Die Briefe Cosima Wagners an Friedrich Nietzsche, published by E. Thierbach, 2 vol., Weimar 1938, 1940, reprint Nendeln (Liechtenstein) 1975; Cosima Wagner—Richard Strauss. Ein Briefwechsel, published by F. Trenner, Tutzing 1978; Das zweite Leben. Briefe und Aufzeichnungen 1883–1930, published by D. Mack, Munich 1980; Cosima Wagner und König Ludwig II von Bayern. Briefe. Eine erstaunliche Korrespondenz, published by M. Schad, Bergisch Gladbach 1996, Munich 2004
A. Chybiński Nowości wydawnicze, “Przegląd Muzyczny” 1912 No. 1 (concerns, among others, a book Franz Liszt. Ein Gedenkblatt…); H. Bélart Friedrich Nietzsches Freundschafts-Tragödie mit Richard Wagner und Cosima Wagner-Liszt, Dresden 1912; R. Du Moulin Eckart Cosima Wagner, 2 vol., Berlin 1929, 1931, French ed. Paris 1933; M. Millenkovich-Morold Cosima Wagner. Ein Lebensbild, Leipzig 1937; A. Sokoloff Cosima Wagner. A Biography, Londyn 1970, German ed. translated by M. Bormann, Hamburg 1970; D. Sutherland Cosima. Eine Biographie, translation from English by E. Winter, Tübingen 1970; G.R. Marek Cosima Wagner, New York 1981, German ed. Cosima Wagner. Ein Leben für ein Genie, translation by D. Dummer, Bayreuth 1983, Munich 1993; G. Skelton Richard and Cosima Wagner. Biography of a Marriage, London 1982; J. Köhler Friedrich Nietzsche und Cosima Wagner. Die Schule der Unterwerfung, Berlin 1996, Hamburg 1998, American ed., translation by R. Taylor, New Haven 1998; F.W. Beidler Cosima Wagner-Liszt. Der Weg zum Wagner-Mythos. Ausgewählte Schriften, published by D. Borchmeyer, Bielefeld 1997; Z. Mycielski Dwa spotkania z Wagnerem (among others about meeting Cosima Wagner in Bayreuth 1929), in: Szkice i wspomnienia, Warsaw 1999; R. Reiser König Ludwig II, Cosima und Richard Wagner, Munich 2006; D. Borchmeyer Nietzsche, Cosima, Wagner. Porträt einer Freundschaft, Frankfurt am Main 2008.