Tuesday, November 6:
My weak eyes keep me from continuing the translation, as they did the inking in of the pages. R. is also not completely well; he wanted to come to meet me and embarked on a longish walk, and now he again felt pains in his foot.
In the evening went through the first act of Tannhäuser with Herr Seidl. R. says he has in mind shortening the new first scene considerably; it weighs the rest down too much, there is a lack of balance, this scene goes beyond the style of Tannhäuser as a whole. I argue in its defense, saying that it casts over the audience the magic spell which causes Tannhäuser’s downfall, and thus it makes the second act more understandable; it is also fitting that the magic underworld is different from the simple world above. “That is what I told myself,” R. observes, “but it is not right.” The problem occupies him greatly.