December 25 - Cosima Wagner (The Musical Birthday Series, 2nd Annual Cycle)

Cosima Wagner (24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of Franz Liszt  and Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of Richard Wagner and ran the Bayreuth festival after his death. While her birthday was actually on the 24th, she chose to celebrate it on the 25th. ("Cosima Wagner wurde zwar am 24. Dezember 1837 geboren, feierte ihren Geburtstag aber traditionell am ersten Weihnachtstag. Deshalb ist oft irrtümlich der 25. Dezember als Geburtsdatum angegeben." = German Wikipedia)

[For last year's quatrains on Orlando Gibbons click here.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not an Idyll

Cosima Wagner took  the reigns

   Of Richard Wagner’s canon,

And she defined the narrow lanes

   That Bayreuth matters ran in.

Cosima Wagner specified

   What must be customáry in

Any Opernhaus which tried

   To claim to be Wagnerian.

At Bayreuth, where her word was law,

   No little thing got past her,

As she for decades oversaw

   The Mythos of the Master.

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