Editing Cosima Wagner (section)

==== First festival ====
[[File:Richard Wagner at Bayreuth.jpg|thumb|250px|The [[Wagner family]] and guests, depicted at the first Bayreuth Festival. Cosima, her arm around Siegfried, is in the left foreground. Wagner is in the rear towards the left; Liszt, centre-right, is at the piano.]]
In March 1876, Cosima and Wagner were in Berlin when they learned that Marie d'Agoult had died in Paris. Unable to attend the funeral, Cosima expressed her feelings in a letter to her daughter Daniela: "There is nothing left for me to do, except to grieve for the woman that brought me into the world".{{sfn|Hilmes|p=133}}

From June onwards, Cosima's journal entries consist almost entirely of comments on the forthcoming festival's rehearsals, sometimes warmly approving, often critical and anxious; for example, she found the costumes "reminiscent throughout of Red Indian chiefs ... all the marks of provincial tastelessness".{{sfn|Skelton (ed.)|pp=261–265}} From the beginning of August 1876 distinguished guests began to converge on the town; Ludwig, incognito, attended the final dress rehearsals between 6 and 9 August, but then left the town, reappearing in time to attend the final performances of the festival.<ref name=H136 /> Among other royal visitors were [[William I, German Emperor|the German emperor Wilhelm I]], [[Pedro II of Brazil|Dom Pedro II of Brazil]] and an assortment of princes and grand dukes from the European royal families.{{sfn|Marek|pp=166–167}} Many of Europe's leading composers came: [[Anton Bruckner|Bruckner]], [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]],<ref name=M168 /> and Cosima's father, Liszt, who held court at Wahnfried among the notables who gathered there.<ref name=H136>{{harvnb|Hilmes|pp=136–137}}</ref> Also in Bayreuth was Wagner's current mistress, [[Judith Gautier]]. It is unlikely that Cosima knew of the affair at this time, though she may have harboured a degree of suspicion.<ref name=M168 />{{refn|group=n|Cosima's journal indicates that Gautier remained a family friend until Wagner's death. Biographers have pointed to one entry, that for 12 February 1878, that might indicate that Cosima had discovered the secret letters exchanged between Gautier and Wagner, or that Wagner had confessed the affair. Cosima writes: "The grief that I was fearing has not passed me by; it has come upon me from outside."{{sfn|Skelton (ed.)|p=299}}}} Cosima's demeanour as the festival's hostess was described by a young American visitor in fulsome terms: "Mme Wagner is exceedingly gracious and affable ... a magnificent-looking woman, a perfect queen ..."<ref name=M168>{{harvnb|Marek|pp=168–169}}</ref>

The festival began on 13 August and lasted until 30th. It consisted of three full ''Ring'' cycles, all under the baton of [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]].<ref name=H136/>{{sfn|Spotts|pp=61–62}}{{refn|group=n|Richter had endeared himself to Wagner by his refusal to conduct Ludwig's Munich performance of ''Das Rheingold'' in 1869.{{sfn|Hilmes|p=114}} Bülow was never seriously considered as a Bayreuth conductor, and pursued his career elsewhere. In 1880 he became director of the [[Meiningen Court Orchestra]], and subsequently championed the music of [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]. He died in 1894.<ref name=M113>{{harvnb|Marek|p=113}}</ref> }} At the end, critical reactions ranged between that of the Norwegian composer [[Edvard Grieg]], who thought the entire work "divinely composed", and that of the French newspaper ''[[Le Figaro]]'' who called the music "the dream of a lunatic".{{sfn|Spotts|pp=71–72}} Wagner himself was far from satisfied; in a letter to Ludwig he denounced the singers [[Albert Niemann (tenor)|Albert Niemann]] and [[Franz Betz]] as "theatrical parasites" and complained that Richter had not got a single tempo correct.{{sfn|Spotts|p=70}} Months later, Cosima records, his attitude towards the productions was "Never again, never again!".{{sfn|Skelton (ed.)|p=270}}