Editing Cosima Wagner (section)

== Marriage to Hans von Bülow ==
[[File:Cropped Hans von Bulow.jpg|thumb|upright|Hans von Bülow, photographed in middle age]]
As his daughters approached womanhood, Liszt felt that a change in their lives was called for and in 1855 he arranged (over their mother's bitter protests) for them to move to Berlin.{{sfn|Marek|pp=22–23}} Here they were placed in the care of Baroness Franziska von Bülow, member of the prominent [[Bülow family]], whose son [[Hans von Bülow|Hans]] was Liszt's most outstanding pupil; he would take charge of the girls' musical education while Frau von Bülow supervised their general and moral welfare.<ref name=H37>{{harvnb|Hilmes|pp=37–43}}</ref> Hans von Bülow, born in 1830, had abandoned his legal education after hearing Liszt conduct the premiere of Wagner's ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' at [[Weimar]] in August 1850, and had decided to dedicate his life to music. After a brief spell conducting in small opera houses, Bülow studied with Liszt, who was convinced that he would become a great concert pianist.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Fifield|first=Christopher|author-link=Christopher Fifield|title=Bülow, Hans (Guido) Freiherr von|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04307|encyclopedia=[[Oxford Music Online]]|year=2001}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Bülow was quickly impressed by Cosima's own skill as a pianist, in which he saw the stamp of her father, and the pair developed romantic feelings for each other. Liszt approved the match, and the marriage took place at [[St. Hedwig's Cathedral]], Berlin, on 18 August 1857.<ref name=H37 /> During their honeymoon, along with Liszt they visited Wagner at his home near Zurich.{{sfn|Marek|pp=28–29}} This visit was repeated the following year, when Cosima, on taking her leave, shocked Wagner with an emotional demonstration: "[S]he fell at my feet, covered my hands with tears and kisses ... I pondered the mystery, without being able to solve it".{{sfn|Hilmes|p=46}}
[[File:Richard Wagner Pecht.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A portrait of Richard Wagner, around 1860. By 1863 he and Cosima were firmly committed to each other.]]
Cosima, a Parisian by upbringing, found it hard to adjust to life in Berlin, which was then a more provincial city than Paris.{{sfn|Hilmes|p=47}} Her attempts to mix with local society, according to Marie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, were handicapped by "[h]er exaggerated self-esteem and innate causticity", which alienated the men and women in her circle.{{sfn|Hilmes|p=50}} At least initially, Cosima took an interest in her husband's career, encouraging him to extend his activities into composition. On one occasion she provided him with a scenario she had written for an opera based on the story of [[Merlin]], court magician to [[King Arthur]]. However, nothing came of this project.{{sfn|Marek|pp=30–31}} Bülow's crowded professional schedule left Cosima alone for long periods, during which she worked for the French-language magazine ''Revue germanique'' as a translator and contributor.{{sfn|Hilmes|pp=48–49}} In December 1859 she was saddened by the death of her brother Daniel, at the age of twenty, after a long wasting illness. Cosima's first child, a daughter born on 12 October 1860, was named [[Daniela von Bülow|Daniela]] in Daniel's memory.{{sfn|Hilmes|pp=53–55}} A further, unexpected blow for Cosima fell in September 1862, when her sister Blandine, who had shared much of her upbringing, died in childbirth—she had been married to [[Émile Ollivier]], a Parisian lawyer, since October 1857. Cosima's second daughter, born in March 1863, was named {{ill|Blandine Gravina|de|lt=Blandine Elisabeth Veronica Theresia}}.<ref name=H59>{{harvnb|Hilmes|pp=59–61}}</ref>

Bülow was committed to Wagner's music; in 1858 he had undertaken the preparation of a vocal score for ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', and by 1862 he was making a [[wikt:fair copy|fair copy]] of ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg]]''.{{sfn|Hilmes|p=57}} A social relationship developed, and during the summer of 1862 the Bülows stayed with Wagner at the composer's home at [[Biebrich (Wiesbaden)|Biebrich]]. Wagner records that Cosima became "transfigured" by his rendering of "Wotan's Farewell" from ''[[Die Walküre]]''.<ref name=H59 /> In October 1862, just after Blandine's death, Wagner and Bülow shared conducting duties at a concert in [[Leipzig]]; Wagner records that, during a rehearsal, "I felt utterly transported by the sight of Cosima ... she appeared to me as if stepping from another world".{{sfn|Wagner tr. Gray|p=697}} In these years Wagner's emotional life was in disarray. He was still married to his first wife, [[Minna Planer]] (she was to die in 1866), and was involved in several extramarital relationships.{{sfn|Hilmes|pp=58, 62}} On 28 November 1863 Wagner visited Berlin; while Bülow was rehearsing a concert, Wagner and Cosima took a long cab ride through Berlin and declared their feelings for each other: "with tears and sobs", Wagner later wrote, "we sealed our confession to belong to each other alone".<ref name=M45>{{harvnb|Marek|p=45}}</ref>