Wednesday, December 20:
R. dreams of suddenly seeing many moons in the sky; he watches them for a long time before discovering that they are the Pleiades, vastly magnified, he is seeing; turning away suddenly he catches sight of a shadow (me!) creeping off downstairs. Rehearsal, the Siegfried Idyll, great sorrow on my part to see it performed in front of so many strangers, but it sounds lovely. Returned to the hotel. Dinner with Ritters, Pohl, Nietzsche; R. animated, talks about the Idyll, and in the process hurts me very much. In between, arrival of a tailor with a waistcoat and a request for the protection of the King of Bavaria for his son, in addition a bill for 23 florins for the waistcoat. R. in a great rage, but calms down. Arrival of Betty Schott, bringing good cheer. At 6 o’clock in the evening the concert; Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, also many Jews. R. already vexed at rehearsals by the universal success of the Lohengrin Prelude! — In the evening a banquet; very fine toast by Dr. Zeroni, which moves R. to reply in spite of great hoarseness. Usual talk, and in particular a serenade by a male vocal choir, very pitiful. Many vivats and hurrays, during which R. relates that when he arrived at Mannheim and was greeted by the gentlemen with cheers, his traveling companion got a sudden shock, thinking he had been traveling with a member of royalty; he stood up quickly and bowed low, but when he saw R. companionably shaking hands with the cheering group he looked very relieved! — (At the first rehearsal, on Monday, the conductor Lachner, who otherwise spends his life intriguing against R., had insisted on introducing R. to the orchestra; in doing so he made the most absurd of speeches; R. standing in dignified silence, he meandering on, at one time comparing him with the German Emperor, at another speaking of his artistic and literary activities, which for decades had held the world enthralled—Franz Moor trying to pray, said Dr. Zeroni.) After the concert R. tells me about his conversation with the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess, which took place in public during the intermission; horribly superficial, the Grand Duke turning as red as a beet when R. mentioned the King of Bavaria and said he owed the completion of his Nibelungen to him.