On the Master’s birthday I arrived. I threw myself into tailcoat and white cravat and appeared thus, to Wagner’s great amusement at Wahnfried! “Here comes Count Almaviva!” he cried in greeting.
Cold sweat stood on my brow from anxiety, all the more because he said, apparently in complete seriousness, that one had to be careful with me, since I came from Vienna and wanted to report everything from Bayreuth back to Hanslick. This threw me into such embarrassment that Wagner noticed it and at once became so kind and cordial that I soon overcame my fright and gradually became conscious of the extraordinary happiness of being allowed to work with him.
I drank champagne to his health, and the morning soon ended cheerfully and merrily. Seidl, Fischer, Kapellmeister Riemenschneider (a fabulously fat man!), Zimmer, a sickly, lanky fellow who had just sought a cure for a lung ailment in Egypt, and a Greek named Lalas, now director of the Conservatory in Athens, with whom I had eaten lunch at Schürbaum’s wine tavern, accompanied me on a carriage excursion to the Hermitage.
In the evening, in the Master’s presence, the inauguration of the restaurant on the Festival Hill took place. Ballet master Fricke from Dessau, a cheerful, intelligent, somewhat overly talkative old gentleman. The Giessel family. Wagner delivered a witty speech in honor of the restaurateur, for whose benefit he declared himself willing to renounce his fame. Later he appeared on the gallery of the restaurant with spear and lantern and sang the Night Watchman’s Song from Die Meistersinger, while comically imitating the F-sharp of the bullhorn.
Late-night drinking party at Angermann’s. I am staying at the “Sonne.” Visited the theater.