Visits, dinners, unheard-of back and forth; in the evening, a banquet. R., without the least preparation, speaks wonderfully, paraphrasing the final chorus of “Faust”, all that is transient is but a metaphor! The idea: the Eternal-Feminine draws us upward. The deputy of the Reichstag speaks most unfortunate, saying that one could not know what posterity would think of the undertaking, but that the endeavour itself was worthy of recognition! Thereupon Count Apponyi speaks magnificently, comparing R. with Siegfried: he has awakened tragedy anew because he has never learned fear. Quite splendid. Then R., most wonderfully, proposes a toast to my father [1]: without him, no one would know anything of R. — A very, very beautiful evening! Yet all the singers are absent, with the exception of Hill, Frau Grün, Reichenberg, and Herr Siehr (excellent as Hagen)! After three months’ work with R., they do not consider it necessary to gather round him upon such an occasion; they are said to be offended because there are no curtain-calls in our theatre.
[1] During the banquet, while delivering his speech, RW suddenly points to Liszt—”Here is the man (…) without whom you might not have heard a single note of mine today”—and embraces him.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins [© Jo Cousins | WAGNER Salon]