By 1863 he and Cosima were firmly committed to each other.The Bayreuth Festspielhaus, as it appeared in the late 19th centuryHermann Levi, who conducted the first performances of Palazzo Vendramin Calergi, Venice, where Wagner died on 13 February 1883A caricature of Cosima Wagner, towards the end of her time in charge at BayreuthMarie falsified the child's birth certificate, recording the mother as "Cathérine-Adelaide Meran", aged 24.

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. # Albert Wagner, * 1799 † 1874, opera singer and stage director,

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. 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". This, says Marek, proved to be a critical factor in determining her future life's mission: the maintenance of Wagner's heritage creations through the preservation of his interpretations.

After a family meal, Wagner read to the group from his text for the final act of what was to become Götterdämmerung. 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.

Although Liszt's relations with his children were formal and distant, he provided for them liberally, and ensured that they were well educated. 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.In December 1859 she was saddened by the death of her brother Daniel, at the age of twenty, after a long wasting illness.

Their third child and only son, Daniel, was born on 9 May 1839 in Venice.In 1839, while Liszt continued his travels, Marie took the social risk of returning to Paris with her daughters.

A similar deception was employed two years later, when Cosima's mother was entered as "Caterina de Flavigny"; these steps were thought necessary to conceal Marie's adultery or perhaps, according to Liszt's biographer Derek Watson, to deny Charles d'Agoult any claim to the children.Wagner's biographer Robert W. Gutman suggests that von Bülow may genuinely have believed, or at least hoped, that the child was his, "until the passing of weeks saw the development of the unmistakeable domelike brow, aquiline nose, and protruding jaw".Cosima's journal indicates that Gautier remained a family friend until Wagner's death. In her seclusion, Cosima learned of an abortive plan masterminded by Julius Kniese, the festival's chorus-master, by which Liszt was to assume the role of music director and Bülow would be chief conductor.

He bases this view on "a rather precise letter given to Liszt a week later by Paul von Joukowsky, the Bayreuth stage designer".Under German law, Isolde was Bülow's daughter, having been born when Cosima was still married to her first husband. Mahler Foundation

Cosima’s husband challenged the newspaper editor to a duel, which he declined. The festival had accumulated a large financial deficit; this, and Wagner's deep artistic dissatisfaction, precluded the possibility of any repeat in the near future. Wir zeigen die familiäre Verästelung als Stammbaum. However, nothing came of this project.

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. 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. In 1857, after a childhood largely spent under the care of her grandmother and with governesses, Cosima married the conductor Hans von Bülow.