A Contradictory Life: Simon Williams enjoys a new biography of Cosima Wagner which illuminates the many sides of her personality

Sabine Zurmühl’s new biography of Cosima Wagner begins with a list of forty-five affectionate nicknames with which Richard addressed his second wife. They range from the intimate, such as ‘meine Melodie’ and ‘Waldweibchen’ (little forest wife), through the grandly complimentary ‘Grund und Ursache des Lebens’ (foundation and reason for life) and ‘meine Sonne zu alle Tageszeiten’ (my sun at all times of day), to the frankly alarming ‘Napoleon’. The sheer variety of names is testimony not only to Richard’s imagination, but also to the complexity of roles, often contradictory, that Cosima played in his life.