Will the ships go to Spain? That is the present political question. Besides that, the Bishop of Cologne is being sent to prison. A very curious situation—I fear a general conflagration against North Germany.
In the afternoon, while waiting for friend Klindworth, R. plays passages from Isouard’s Cendrillon and tells me that he heard the song from it, “Cendrillon cendrillon” for the first and last time in Meudon, sung by an old woman who had a puppet theater and was performing Cinderella—he had been much affected by it. He says that he and Standhartner used often to sing “un segreto d’importanza una cosa stravagante” from Rossini’s Cenerentola.
Friend Klindworth arrives to do another arrangement of the second act of Götterdämmerung, the first version having got lost between Moscow and Bayreuth. He tells us many things about Hans, his moods, his present passion for England, etc. Hans is said to have the intention, on returning from his American tour, of looking around for a conductor’s post in Germany—yet he is constantly abusing Germany! —
Conversation in the evening; R. develops his favorite idea of giving Constantinople to the Russians; he hopes this is Bismarck’s intention, and maintains that the hatred against Germany of which friend Klindworth speaks is artificial.