These two new engagements are a great pleasure to me, and
I shall willingly console myself for the loss of the innocent
Abel.
And as Mr. de Beaulieu is just in such a good temper, I advise
you to profit by the circumstance to write him a letter,
artistically turned, to beg for a prolongation of your holiday,
which he will grant you with a good grace, I am sure.
The theater will reopen the 15th September. The 16th "Ernani"
will be given. In the course of October we shall have the
"Huguenots", with a new singer from Prague, Mdlle. Stoger, of
whom one hears wonders.
For the 9th October (fiftieth anniversary of the entry of H.I.H.
the Grand Duchess Marie Paulowna into Weymar) a rather curious
performance will be arranged: -
1st. The Homage to Art by Schiller.
2nd. One of my Poemes Symphoniques.
3rd. "The Hunters of Siberia", Opera in one Act - Music by
Rubinstein.
4th. The Finale of "Lorelei" by Mendelssohn.
For the winter season they are thinking of giving the two
"Iphigenies", "in Aulis" and "in Tauris", by Gluck, and
Schumann's "Genoveva".
Rubinstein and Wasielewski (of Bonn) have been here some days.
Raff has published his volume "The Wagner Question." I would
neither answer nor vindicate it! - My monster instrument with
three keyboards has also arrived a fortnight ago, and seems to me
to be a great success - and on your return I shall pretty nearly
have finished my Faust Symphony, at which I am working like a
being possessed.
This is all my news from here, to which I add the expression of
the old and sincere friendship of your very affectionate
F. Liszt
P.S. - I, on my side, will also write to Mr. de Beaulieu about
you, but it is the thing for you to write him a few lines. The
matter in itself will not present any difficulty.
122. To Gaetano Belloni in Paris
[autograph in the possession of M. Etienne Charavay in Paris]
[September 9th, 1854]
My dear Belloni,
Will you do me the kindness to tell Mr. Escudier that on my last
visit to H.R.H. the Duke of Gotha I gave Monseigneur the volume
on Rossini, and spoke to him at the same [time] of the desire
that Mr. Escudier had mentioned to me in his last letter to be
admitted into the order of H.R.H., before putting himself at his
command? It goes without saying that I warmly recommended Mr.
Escudier to the Duke; but nevertheless he seemed to turn a little
deaf, at any rate with one ear, to the side of the ribbon. In the
course of this month I shall probably see the Duke again, and
will speak to him again about it.
