Friday, August 18:
Calls, dinners, a tremendous amount of coming and going; in the evening a banquet. R., quite without preparation, makes a wonderful speech, paraphrasing the final chorus from Faust — “All things transitory are sent but as symbols.” The idea: “The eternally feminine leads us on.” The Reichstag deputy chooses very unfortunate words: one could not know what posterity would think of it all, but the striving was worthy of recognition!
Following that, Count Apponyi splendidly compares R. with Siegfried; he has brought tragedy back to life, because he never learned the meaning of fear. Quite splendid. Then R. proposes a wonderful toast to my father, without whom, he says, no one would have known anything about him, R. A very, very lovely evening! All the singers absent except for Hill, Frau Grün, Reichenberg, and Herr Siehr (outstanding as Hagen)! After working for three months with R., they do not consider it necessary on such an occasion to gather around him; they are said to be angry because we do not allow curtain calls in our theater.