Wagner read me today the congratulatory telegram to the director von Hülsen on the 25th anniversary in Berlin: “
Deeply regretting having been absent from your so beneficial work for a quarter of a century, I hope to be more closely involved with it for another quarter of a century, and thus determining a great age for myself, I wish you, most esteemed sir, the beautiful patience which may lead you to the golden jubilee of this silver day.
Respectfully yours truly,
Richard Wagner.”
Hülsen and Wagner had remained very distant from each other until recently (the first performance of Tristan und Isolde). At the time of the first performances of Lohengrin in Berlin, when Wagner’s presence was required, Hülsen, as a Prussian Junker, had never received him, the political refugee whom he had faced on the barricades in 1849. Now they have become the best of friends.
Wagner instructed me to go into town with Mrs. Cosima to borrow props for the Nibelung treasure for today’s rehearsal from a coppersmith or plumber. At plumber Vogel’s, we found the treasure in the form of 44 items: oil cans, tins, funnels, cake tins, buckets, watering cans, kettles, etc., and we carried the treasure to the theater.
After lunch, I found Wilhelmj and his brother, Hans Richter and his wife, and Reichenberg, among others, at the “Sonne” café, where I had gone for coffee, all enjoying champagne. Wilhelmj couldn’t find enough words to express all the praise he felt I deserved for my arrangements, so much so that I felt quite anxious.
6 a.m. Scene rehearsal, Scene 4 of Das Rheingold. This time, to general merriment (myself and the 30 gymnasts), we performed with our hard-earned Nibelung treasure and once again earned praise and acclaim. 8:45 a.m. back to the city. A terrible storm was brewing in the sky, which soon broke loose, lightning after lightning. It struck a house, ruining a wall, but endangering no lives.