Tuesday, March 29:
Letter from C. Mendès: the success of Lohengrin is growing in Brussels. One thing in the letter annoys R.—that Catulle speaks of the director of the Grand Opera and says, “He has expressed the intention of doing L., but the road to hell is paved with such good intentions.” “There one sees the sort of people one always has to deal with,” R. says. “I refused to let Perrin have Lohengrin, although he offered me an advance of 10,000 francs and undertook to produce it within a year. But people always regard it as the greatest of favors to be taken up by the Paris Opera.”
In the evening R. reads me the beginning of his work on international theater. We discuss the matter and decide to come out against it, though at most in the form of a memorandum to Ollivier. In the evening read The Arabian Nights with the children. (Letter from Richter, who is arriving the day after tomorrow.)