Friday, April 23:
Dress rehearsal. R. not well, however; we drive there with Frau Wesendonck. Many friends, and great emotion (Prof. Helmholtz constantly in tears as he listened to these divine things). I was utterly shattered; the whole finale is in fact a paraphrase of the words not set to music: “Not the glitter of gold, etc., in joy and sorrow let love alone prevail.”
The entire world of the gods, the forces of Nature, the heroes, all serve, as it were, to glorify the noblest of women! [In the margin: “The victory column!”] ... At the conclusion of the rehearsal R. says to me: “Here comes the awakener! You are always in my thoughts, for it is you who awakened everything in me again - love, creative power, everything.” He is longing to be back with the children. Lunched at home; I paid some calls, and in the evening there was a soiree at the Office of the Royal Household in honor of Frau Materna. (R. decides on Schroetter for Siegfried.)