Left at 9:30. R. greeted me at the station, and fortunately, he looks very well, though he says that if I were to leave, he would fall ill. I saw and spoke with Sascha Ritter; his son will be coming to us. Claire Wolfram’s daughters are also arriving.
In the evening, we went to the theater to see “Genoveva” by Schumann[1]. A complete shock at the vulgarity and coarseness of this work; R. recalls having advised Schumann to at least show the images to Siegfried before receiving the letter, but Schumann did not want to, as he felt it would spoil the effectiveness of the final act. – – The music is full of Meyerbeerian elements, Marschner[2] (in his worst moments), even Reißiger.[3] The beginning of the overture is good, but immediately the Allegro theme destroys the mood. Terrible! And in addition the audience, which is only drawn to the vulgarity, is satisfied to find it in a “classical” work”! “When a person from Zwickau starts being vulgar”,[4] says R. But there is no one to speak to about this! – Plus, the clumsy handling of the orchestra, which is utterly exhausting. (Sent Loldi a telegram.)
[1] “Genoveva”, opera based on the works of Tieck and Hebbel, Op. 81, 1850, by Robert Schumann.
[2] Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861), German composer.
[3] Carl Gottleib Reißiger (1798-1859), German composer.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins.