Wednesday, August 30:
Rain! Leave-takings on all sides. For me from my father. For R., who gets up late, from Reichmann, Hill, Frl. Galfy. Herr Neumann annoys him by asking for Parsifal! The King’s complete silence and failure to come he also finds disturbing. A visit from our friends the Schöns cheers him up at coffee time; in the evening he also enjoys seeing our friends Mimi, Malwida, and with them Count Wolkenstein and Stein; he talks at length about the performances and remarks how much the singers have learned.
He says that Materna completely astonished him, and she had told him that it was all quite different when he was standing with them in the wings! He also talks jokingly of Levi’s concern that he might upset the performance. We, on the other hand, maintain that almost all of us heard what was happening in the orchestra, even if we could not exactly explain it at the time. He tells us that when he indicated the fifth quarter note for Herr Reichmann’s benefit, he received a “Bravo” from the conductor for this recognition of the singer’s weakness. And so these sixteen performances have come to an end, and never once did the spirit of eagerness and dedication desert the artists! And the audience, too, had the feeling of something out of the ordinary, indeed, in the highest sense of the word. I think we can be satisfied.