Wagner, Cosima

Wagner, Cosima, wife of Richard Wagner , daughter of Franz Liszt and the Countess Marie d’Agoult; b. Bellagio, on Lake Como, Dec. 24, 1837; d. Bayreuth, April 1, 1930. She received an excellent education in Paris and married Hans von Bülow on Aug. 18, 1857. There were 2 daughters from this marriage, Blandine and Daniela; the third daughter, Isolde, was Richard Wagner’s child, as was the fourth, Eva, and the son, Siegfried. A divorce followed on July 18, 1870; the marriage to Wagner took place in a few weeks, on Aug. 25,1870. A woman of high intelligence, practical sense, and imperious character, Cosima Wagner emerged after Wagner’s death as a powerful personage in all affairs regarding the continuance of the Bayreuth Festivals, as well as the complex matters pertaining to the rights of performance of Wagner’s works all over the world. She publ. her reminiscences of Liszt: Franz Liszt, Ein Gedenkblatt von seiner Tochter (Munich, 2^nded., 1911). Her diaries were ed. by M. Gregor-Dellin and D. Mack as Cosima Wagner: Die Tagebücher, 1869-1877 (2 vols., Munich, 1976-77; Eng. tr. by G. Skelton as Cosima Wagner’s Diaries, 2vols., N.Y., 1977 and 1980).

Bibliography

M. Strauss, Wie ich Frau C. W. sehe (Magdeburg, 1912); W. Siegfried, FrauC. W. (Stuttgart, 1930); M. von Wald-berg, C. W.s Briefe an ihre Tochter Daniela von Bülow, 1866-85 (Stuttgart, 1933); P. Pretzsch, C. W. und H.S. Chamberlain im Briefwechsel, 1888-1908 (Leipzig, 1934); L. Scalerò, C. W. (Zürich, 1934); M. von Millenkovich (M. Morold), C. W.: Ein Lebensbild (Leipzig, 1937); E. Thierbach, ed., Die Briefe C. W.s an Friedrich Nietzsche (Weimar, 1938-0); A. Sojoloff, G W., Extraordinary Daughter of Franz Liszt (N.Y., 1969); D. Mack, ed., C. W.: Das zweite Leben: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, 1883-1930 (Munich, 1980); G. Marek, C. W. (N.Y., 1981); G. Skelton, Richard andC. Wagner: Biography of a Marriage (London, 1982).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire