Sunday, March 11:
Received calls from the various ladies of the Court, then to Frau v. Heldburg and received by the Duke; offer of the Commander’s Cross, the acceptance of which I declare to be unfortunately impossible.
R. with Princess Marie, who is in fact an “anti-Wagnerian,” as the Duke said with a smile, then with Duke Bernhard, who speaks very critically about the Meiningen theater (everything concentrated on the externals, they cannot speak properly), very graciously received everywhere.
After that a large banquet.
The Duke had forbidden the use of any of R.’s compositions as table music, whereupon R. put the “Huldigungsmarsch” on the program.
In the evening Julius Caesar. Before the theater a walk through Meiningen with the Duke; R. says, “The river Werra is my friend.” Since Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Caesar were only mediocre, I was very worried at the beginning for R., who was sitting with me at the Duke’s side in the central box; but the assassination of Caesar, the Marcus Antonius (Herr Dettmer from Dresden), and the great street scene were so splendid that allowances were willingly made, and the impression produced by this incomparable work again triumphed over all shortcomings in the presentation.
In the evening a cordial tea party in our rooms again.