Very weak, though suffering less pain; Loldi, however, again unwell. I keep to my room and read “Count Robert of Paris” by Walter Scott with mixed pleasure. R. receives the American organ; Dr Pringsheim also here on account of lodgings, and our ballet-master Fricke now permanently established here.[1] — The soldiers are said to have fallen ill through poor provisioning; the contractors are all Jews and supply bad bread, bad meat, and so forth.
[1] Richard Fricke (1818-1903), ballet master in Dessau, had caught Wagner’s attention in 1872 during the performance of Gluck’s “Orpheus”; co-director in 1876 and dance teacher of Wagner’s children, wrote diary entries, published “Bayreuth thirty years ago”, Dresden 1906.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins [© Jo Cousins | WAGNER Salon]