Diary Entry of August 6, 1871
Brandt arrives from Darmstadt in the morning, followed by the Neumanns in the afternoon, turning the day toward practical discussion of Bayreuth. Supper includes a toast to the Battle of Worth, linking the household's gathering to recent national memory. Wagner ends the evening with a vivid theatrical recollection of a duel scene from The Corsican Brothers that leaves his listeners shaken.
Sunday, August 6:
In the morning the machinist Brandt arrives from Darmstadt, and in the afternoon the Neumanns also arrive, and a little conference about Bayreuth takes place. At supper we drink to the Battle of Wörth.
R. made us literally shudder with his description of a duel in The Corsican Brothers, which he once saw in a little theater in London.