Monday, January 21:
R. dreamed of a complete break between us. “What is the good of knowing that inside us we belong entirely to each other,” he exclaims, “when something like this is still possible?”
When I ask him how he can ever dream such things, he says: “Well, our dear Lord is not selective when he wants to wake us up, or rather, he is selective, and chooses the most hideous thing he can think of, knowing he can no longer scare me much with the failure of one of my operas.”
R. had to get up very early. However, he managed to work and is utterly filled with his glorious work. He thinks he will not allow Titurel to speak again after the rites. “A modulation” causes him difficulties in the afternoon and, as he is going off to sleep, I hear him cry aloud, “It must be A flat, G flat, F.”
A curious interruption in our sublime life is provided by the visit of the opera director Angelo Neumann from Leipzig and Israel. He has come for the Ring but would also like to have Parsifal. He coaxes R. out of half the royalties for the subscription quota, in short, is just what such gentlemen always are. R. says he has nothing against his coming, insofar as it shows they still need him, and we need money, so agreement is reached!