Monday, September 30:
At last the Genelli comes back, which we have been without so long on account of repairs. R. calls it the most beautiful thing we have, and I am glad that, when he completed Die Meistersinger, I succeeded in acquiring this beautiful watercolor and laying it at his feet.
I go shopping in the morning, R. arranges things. After lunch we go for a walk and, by a roundabout route, with ever-increasing delight in the town’s location and surroundings, arrive at our theater building. A colorful, volcanic appearance, the earth green and pink: “There is the Venusberg already,” says R.
Home in darkness, but in the best of spirits. I write to my father. For supper two Dutchmen, musicians, who have come to Bayreuth to see R., very pleasant and full of character. “You showed us the way in your Pilgrimage to Beethoven,” they say. R. remarks that the true German character has perhaps been developed in the provinces better than within Germany itself.
R. dismisses them early, and we finish “Signor Formica” with great enjoyment.