Last week, instead of firing rockets, sizzling pinwheels, Germans went to recitals, read appreciations, climbed a long hill outside Bayreuth, Bavaria, where dwells old
Cosima Wagner, widow of Wilhelm Richard Wagner, who first triumphed in Gemany just 50 years ago. The old woman sees onetime King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, onetime Field Marshal Ludendorff, but few others. Germany did not always pay homage to her husband. France had detested him also. He once rendered Tannhäuser at the Grand Opera in Paris. He had rehearsed 164 times. Mesdames, seigneurs, laced perfumed lords chitchatted, watched...