R. at rehearsal; returns particularly dissatisfied with Lucile Grahn.[1] I with Marie D.—found her just as ever, warm-hearted, tender, and lovely. R. with the children at the aquarium. In the evening he goes for one act to “The African Woman” (“L’Africaine”)[2] and says that, were he to live in Vienna and have dealings with the theatre, he would never again take up the pen to write music, so desecrated does all appear to him. This time, he says, reminds him of “Tannhäuser” in Paris, when, after nine years of seclusion in Switzerland, he had gone to see even the poorest performances in order to test singers, and had felt himself, just as now, in a state of guilt.
[1] Lucile Grahn (1819 – 1907), Danish dancer, see note on January 8, 1870.
[2] “The African Woman”, opera 1865, by Meyerbeer.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins.