Sunday, August 28:
The weather is still dull. R. concentrates all the objections he has against the appearance and singing of Marianne Brandt on the fact that she cannot pronounce the letter r. He said very emphatically at lunch yesterday that she would have to consult a “mouth doctor.” But he admits with a sigh that not a single member of the public would hear an r.
Again today at one o’clock there is rehearsal of half of the scene between P. and K.; in the evening, with Herr Wink, bits of the conclusion and the third act. Weariness amounting almost to despair. But his rendering of the third act of Siegfried, that is to say, Siegfried’s entrance and awakening of Brünnhilde, brings us out of our ill humor. The evening concludes with Neapolitan songs, sung by Pepino. R. praises P. highly and tells me he felt as if a Greek sky were opening above him.
“I play wrong, but correctly,” R. said to Herr Humperdinck as he took over the accompaniment from him.