The rehearsals of the _Rheingold_ with orchestra had commenced! Wagner
had made it a point that his friends should be allowed to be present at
the last one before the dress rehearsal. This prospect filled us with
joy.
Richter, however, seemed to be anxious. Could anything be going wrong?
The singers were of the first rank and full of enthusiasm, the members
of the orchestra were, without a doubt, the best in the world,--but
there was also the management of the theatre, which laboured secretly
at the staging of the work. What would this staging be like, without
the suggestions of the Master, carried on by a management that was
hostile to him, and looking out only for itself? Incredible as it may
appear, it is true that the men who directed and managed the theatre,
to which Wagner brought glory and profit, were hostile to Wagner.
And yet the manager, Perfall, had been appointed solely at the
recommendation of the Master, whom he had solicited with a servile
insistence, swearing that he would have no other object except to
devote himself to him and to his interests, with all his heart and
all his ability. As soon as he was appointed, with an unparalleled
treachery, he had betrayed the one to whom he owed his position, and
hindered in a thousand ways the production of the _Meistersinger_.
Nor could one depend very much more upon the Court Counsellor, Lorenz
von Düfflipp, intermediary between the Palace and the theatre, who, in
spite of his obsequious flatteries of Wagner, was secretly adverse to
him, and hand in hand with the management.
Fruitless reprisals indeed, but we called him "Tartufflipp,"[1] and his
title of "Hofrath" changed itself for us into "Chaussetrappe."[2]
This counsellor, secretary to the king, had replaced Pfistmeister, the
messenger who had carried the good news to Wagner from Ludwig II., and
who was now, also, one of his most implacable adversaries.
"Tartufflipp," with his prepossessing face, was badly built,
high-shouldered, even hump-backed--and the report ran that his hump
was greatly increased by the Wagnerian theatre project, which having
juggled away, he had concealed there.
What could result from all these artful under-hand dealings? Already
they had written me from Tribschen that the costumes, according to the
sketches sent to the Master, were hideous and would have to be re-made.
Someone had conceived the idea of building up great scaffolds of gold
upon the heads of the Gods, without remembering that in this opera,
where gold is discovered, it ought not to appear until after Alberich
had plundered and forged it. Would attention be paid to the author's
suggestions? In that which pertained to the staging was there not all
to be feared, considering that the only beings upon whom it depended
were spiteful and incapable?
Decidedly, Richter's anxiety explained itself and extended to us.
[1] Hypocrite.
[2] Trap-door.