Liszt's solution was to remove the girls from Marie and place them with his mother, Anna Liszt, in her Paris home while Daniel remained with nurses in Venice. Her hopes of recovering her status in the city were dented when her influential mother, Madame de Flavigny, refused to acknowledge the children Marie would not be accepted socially while her daughters were clearly in evidence. ![]() In 1839, while Liszt continued his travels, Marie took the social risk of returning to Paris with her daughters. Their third child and only son, Daniel, was born on in Venice. With her sister she was left in the care of wet nurses (a common practice at the time), while Liszt and Marie continued to travel in Europe. They named her Francesca Gaetana Cosima, the unusual third name being derived from St Cosmas, a patron saint of physicians and apothecaries it was as "Cosima" that the child became known. Here, on 24 December in a lakeside hotel in Bellagio, a second daughter was born. Late in 1837, when Marie was heavily pregnant with their second child, the couple were at Como in Italy. In the following two years Liszt and Marie travelled widely in pursuit of his career as a concert pianist. In March 1835 the couple fled Paris for Switzerland ignoring the scandal they left in their wake, they settled in Geneva where, on 18 December, Marie gave birth to a daughter, Blandine-Rachel. Drawn together by their mutual intellectual interests, Marie and Liszt embarked on a passionate relationship. Marie had been married since 1827 to Charles, Comte d'Agoult, and had borne him two daughters, but the union had become sterile. Marie's antecedents were mixed her German mother, from a prominent Frankfurt banking family, had married a French nobleman, the Comte de Flavigny. ![]() In January 1833 the 21-year-old Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt met Marie d'Agoult, a Parisian socialite six years his senior. Thus, although she is widely perceived as the saviour of the festival, her legacy remains controversial.įamily background and early childhood Franz Liszt, depicted at the time of his affair with Marie d'Agoult ![]() This was a defining aspect of Bayreuth for decades, into the Nazi era which closely followed her death there in 1930. She shared Wagner's convictions of German cultural and racial superiority, and under her influence, Bayreuth became increasingly identified with antisemitism. They married in 1870 after Wagner's death in 1883 she directed the Bayreuth Festival for more than 20 years, increasing its repertoire to form the Bayreuth canon of ten operas and establishing the festival as a major event in the world of musical theatre.ĭuring her directorship, Cosima opposed theatrical innovations and adhered closely to Wagner's original productions of his works, an approach continued by her successors long after her retirement in 1907. ![]() Although the marriage produced two children, it was largely a loveless union, and in 1863 Cosima began a relationship with Wagner, who was 24 years her senior. In 1857, after a childhood largely spent under the care of her grandmother and with governesses, Cosima married the conductor Hans von Bülow. Commentators have recognised Cosima as the principal inspiration for Wagner's later works, particularly Parsifal. She became the second wife of the German composer Richard Wagner, and with him founded the Bayreuth Festival as a showcase for his stage works after his death she devoted the rest of her life to the promotion of his music and philosophy. Daughter of Marie d'Agoult and Franz Liszt, wife of Richard Wagner, director of Bayreuth Festivalįrancesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner ( née Liszt 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult.
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