Description
Book SynopsisProvides a revealing picture of the extraordinary Cosima Wagner - illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt, wife of the conductor Hans von Bulow, then mistress and subsequently wife of Richard Wagner. This biography explores the achievements of this remarkable and obsessive woman while illuminating a chapter of European cultural history.
Trade Review"'Oliver Hilmes has written by far the best biography of her... His book is a model of scholarship and also compellingly readable... A major achievement.' (Michael Tanner, BBC Music Magazine) 'This biography of Wagner's wife offers a wonderfully clear-eyed look at the couple's relationship and her fanatical tending of his flame.' (The Sunday Times) 'Oliver Hilmes has produced a surprisingly amusing book.' (Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph) 'He has written a detailed, fair-minded and fascinating account, not just of a pivotal figure in European musical history, but of an epoch and an ethos: nineteenth-century German cultural and spiritual nationalism.' (Robert Carver, The Tablet) 'This well-written book (translated brilliantly - as ever - by Stewart Spencer) offers a clear and scrupulous insight into how she created and stoked the peculiar mania that infected the Wagner cult.' (Della Couling, Classical Music)"
