R. receives in the morning a letter from Dr J. in reply to his telegram of Sunday: protests and fright at the phrase concerning the “hostile disposition of the Court Opera Direction” in the telegram; yet he nevertheless adheres to the condition of performing “Die Walküre” in November with his own personnel! …
Frau Mallinger telegraphs her refusal; still no Sieglinde. — Yesterday evening we discussed with R. the conduct of the inhabitants here, who see in the festival and in the visit of strangers nothing but an opportunity for taking advantage of them; thus nowhere in Germany a sense of civic spirit, nor the feeling of honour which should arise from it! How different in this respect are the French. — The baseness and folly of this disposition provoke real disgust; R. says that, if matters continue thus, he will tell the people that he must cancel the performances.
R. goes to the theatre with Herr Brückwald, who has at last been roused by a vehement letter from Feustel—everything still delayed; and the ceiling promised by the Messrs. Brückner has not arrived, the canvas, they say, was faulty!! —
R. returns home very angry. Among other things he relates at supper that the King is applying to the Chambers for an increase of the Civil List, on the pretext of the augmented expenditures occasioned by the new currency.[1] The ultramontane Chamber will seize the opportunity to demonstrate the disadvantages of the new regime, and will certainly say many unpleasant things to the King—what will he then do? Grave anxieties! …
Herr Hey telegraphs that Fräulein Scheffsky will come next Monday; very late. —
It is said that the Serbs wish to declare war upon Turkey; R. says he hopes yet once to see the Pope and the Sultan removed from Europe (perhaps to Jerusalem). —
As in a dream, and like shadowy figures, all these things pass before me; the only thing that truly pierced my heart like a knife was when Herr Rubinstein, passing by the other day, related that Hans had publicly insulted the Germans in America and then played the “Marseillaise”! … For one who suffers as I do, there can be no well-being, and the evil strikes only as if ghostly! …
[1] By the Imperial Coinage Act of 9 July 1873, the Mark was converted to one third of a Vereinstaler; the German Reich had a gold currency of 1 RM = 1/2790 kg of fine gold from 1871 until the old Thaler was withdrawn from circulation in 1907; the German states in the south now joined this currency, and France in 1876.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins [© Jo Cousins | WAGNER Salon]