Wagner, Cosima lived in Berlin until the composer Richard Wagner invi- ted them to join him in Munich and assist him in perfor- mances of his works. It was in Munich that Cosima von Bülow left her husband, joining Richard Wagner in Trib- schen near Lucerne in Switzerland in 1868. They subse- quently married and in 1872 they moved with their child- ren to Bayreuth where Richard Wagner was planning his festival theatre. This opened in 1876 and since then has been devoted exclusively to Richard Wagner’s works. Co- sima Wagner remained resident in Bayreuth until her death. Biography The background and biography of the “Mistress of Bay- reuth”, the “Keeper of the Grail” or “Meisterin”, as Cosi- ma Wagner was variously called, were sensational. Her birth was the result of a love affair between the Countess Marie d’Agoult and the famous pianist and composer Franz Liszt. She herself rushed into an ill-considered marriage with the conductor Hans von Bülow in 1857 (“how it came about that we married is something I still don’t know … the wedding happened without any mood, motion or consideration on my part”). She wrote articles for a French newspaper, played the piano (although an excellent pianist, she never performed in public), atten- ded concerts, operas and plays, and was not merely high- ly gifted artistically, but also very interested in cultural matters. Then the composer Richard Wagner fell in love Cosima Wagner, Brustbild von unbekanntem Fotograf, o. D. with Cosima – 24 years his junior – and she reciproca- ted. The ensuing years were agonizing, as she was still of- Cosima Wagner ficially von Bülow’s wife and was the mother of his two Birth name: Cosima Francesca Gaetana de Flavigny children (Daniela and Blandine). Whereas Peter Wap- Merried name: Cosima Francesca von Bülow newski claims that “This nun shunned sensuality as the devil would avoid holy water”, Robert Gutman invented * 24 December 1837 in Bellassio, Königreich Lombardei the myth of her “highly strung sexuality”. She presumab- [heute: Bellagio, Italien] ly never rid herself of her feelings of guilt for her betrayal † 1 April 1930 in Bayreuth, Germany of Hans von Bülow. During this time she gave birth to a daughter, Isolde, and although Wagner was the father Chronicler of Richard Wagner, director of the Bayreuth she was named von Bülow for reasons of decorum. Cosi- Festival and opera director ma had to mediate for Wagner in Munich in his dealings Cities an countries with King Ludwig II (who was financing him), and she es- sentially ran two households. Wagner was renting a hou- Cosima Wagner, née de Flavigny was the illegitimate se in Tribschen near Lucerne, where she joined him per- daughter of Countess Marie d’Agoult (née de Flavigny) manently in 1868 and where their daughter Eva and son and the composer and pianist Franz Liszt. She grew up Siegfried were born. The latter was only baptized after in Paris, living with Liszt’s mother. After a period of resi- Cosima had officially divorced in 1870, so that he might dence in Weimar, Liszt sent her to Franziska von Bülow, bear the name “Wagner”. In that same year, Cosima and the mother of his student the pianist, composer and con- Richard married. In 1872 the family moved from Trib- ductor Hans von Bülow. Hans and Cosima married and schen to Bayreuth, where Wagner founded his festival – 1 – Wagner, Cosima theatre, built with the help of donations. It was inaugura- Bayreuth into an event of worldwide stature. As Stephan ted in 1876 with the world première of the Ring of the Ni- Mösch has convincingly argued, Cosima’s direction tea- belung. After Richard Wagner’s death in 1883, Cosima sed out the timeless, symbolic aspects of the works, and took charge of the Festival herself, only handing it over in the process occasionally went beyond Wagner’s own to her son Siegfried in 1906 on account of ill health. Cosi- production instructions. We can hear this in Hans Knap- ma’s great cultural, historical achievement lay in her ma- pertsbusch’s early recording of The flying Dutchman; he nagement of the Festival. As early as 1884 she drew up a had been an assistant in Bayreuth from 1909 to 1912, five-year festival plan, and began to direct operas there and was therefore well acquainted with Cosima Wagner’s herself in 1886. She displayed unprecedented energies in ideas. At the end of the duet in the second act, Wagner this task, achieved performances of high quality, and the- makes a kind of “cut” in which he has Daland appear, dis- reby ensured the survival of the Festival as an instituti- turbing the couple. Knappertsbusch ignores this, howe- on. She became a kind of “model widow” who adopted ver, instead using the first measures of the allegro vivace the ideology of her husband entirely, including his anti- as a continuation of the duet. He would surely not have Semitic shortcomings. dared to do this without Cosima Wagner’s example. And She assumed full control in 1886 with her production of with her cuts to Rienzi, which she directed in Berlin, Cosi- Tristan, even designing the sets, determining the lighting ma succeeded in turning “the historical, colossal tableau and all other details – though she consistently adhered into a timeless symbol”. It was her overall endeavour to to the ideas behind the two productions in Munich in maintain Wagner’s staging ideas as much as possible on 1865 and Berlin in 1876 that Wagner had himself plan- the one hand, while emphasizing the symbolic, cultic, uni- ned. Above and beyond this, she made an intensive study versal aspects of the action on the other. In 1906, ill he- of the scores and applied her own observations of the sta- alth prompted her to pass on the directorship of the Festi- ge design and the manner of singing and acting. To inter- val to her son Siegfried. Her tireless advocacy of Richard pret this as obstinacy, as is stated in her biographies, me- Wagner’s oeuvre led Berlin University to award her an rely demonstrates that her gender stood in the way of her honorary doctorate in 1910. Isolde, her first child by Wag- success from the very start. After the performances of ner, began legal proceedings in 1913 in order to ensure Parsifal in 1888, it was clear that the Festival was both a the position of her own son Franz Wilhelm Beidler as a stable institution and a major force in Germany whose fu- possible heir to Bayreuth. But Cosima denied that Wag- ture was no longer in doubt. In 1886, a modern cyclora- ner was her father, and refused to receive Isolde. Cosima ma system was considered but not introduced. However, made Siegfried the sole heir to the Wagner dynasty, and in 1898 Cosima decided to collaborate with the set desig- was able to do so because Wagner himself had left no ner Max Brückner to create new sets to replace the “ma- will. She also went about collecting all possible docu- gic garden” in the second act of Parsifal that had so de- ments, letters and other materials on Richard Wagner, lighted Wagner himself. In 1891, Cosima took on the task though she purged these by committing unwelcome docu- of producing Tannhäuser, and tracked down everything ments to the flames (including her own correspondence that had even the slightest connection with the work. Lo- with Richard, his correspondence with Mathilde Wesen- hengrin was performed in 1894 and was well-received in donck and with his first wife Minna). Her collection for- the press. These were followed in 1901 by The flying med the basis of the archives in the Villa Wahnfried, Dutchman, though Cosima by no means took the Munich most of which were later transferred to the Richard Wag- production of 1864 as her model – for the preparations ner National Archive through the creation of a foundati- for that production had not been complete by the time of on. Cosima and her son Siegfried died within several its performance. Instead, she applied her own interpreta- weeks of each other in 1930. tive ideas to the production. In 1906, Cosima produced a Appreciation new version of her Tristan staging. According to Fabian Kern, the sources reveal that she indeed dared to venture Cosima’s great cultural achievement lay in drawing up a into the realm of the Modern. She did not restrict herself five-year plan for the Festival as early as 1884 – i.e. just merely to copying old productions, but was open to new one year after Richard Wagner’s death – and her own sta- things. ging of operas there from 1886 onwards. She displayed Over the space of 23 years, Cosima’s hard work resulted unprecedented energies in her task, achieved performan- in a total of 220 performances that enabled her to turn ces of high quality and thereby ensured the survival of – 2 – Wagner, Cosima the Festival as an institution. lished. Hundreds of unpublished letters are held primari- ly by the Richard Wagner National Archive in Bayreuth, Reception but are also scattered across numerous other libraries The image of Cosima Wagner is still characterized to an and archives. Whereas, for example, research into Ro- equal degree by hagiography on the one hand and hate- bert and Clara Schumann has made progress with the re- ful tirades on the other. Thus we find her both placed on gular publication of volumes of their letters, research has a pedestal, idealized and venerated, as in du Moulin-Eck- stagnated in Bayreuth, despite the sources held there.