Friday, July 28:
R. slept well. At lunch he is amused by the children’s accounts of all kinds of experiences with our guests. We drive up to the theater early. The Prelude is dragged out. After the first act there is a reverent silence, which has a pleasant effect. But when, after the second, the applauders are again hissed, it becomes embarrassing. At the end, believing himself to be in the presence of his patrons only, R. makes a short speech, presenting his artists and asking the audience to express its gratitude to them, after having himself first expressed to them, and particularly to the conductor, his own appreciation and emotion. (Between the second and third acts Herr v. Burkel visited us.) In connection with his singers, he said to me that they moved and vexed him at one and the same time. However, the impression is a much more harmonious one than on the first occasion. We enjoy a quiet and amiable time with my father. A sonnet in the Tagblatt makes a pleasing impression, as do various newspaper reports.