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11 December 1881 — Paris | |
Sunday. 11th December [1881]. Did not go out in the morning. Sat at home wrote letters &c. Lunched at 1 & directly after Henry & I set off to walk to the Conservatoire to meet Mme Weisweiller who had offered us a place in her box. We had to hurry as we were afraid of being late & it was a longer walk than we had expected– Luckily we arrived exactly in time & got into the box a moment before the Weisweillers & Mme Porges arrived. We heard a symphony in la mineure by Mendlessohn most wonderfully well played—after wh a M. Saint-Saens & the stringed instruments played a concerto wh M. S.S. accompanied on the piano. It was his own composition & that is about all that can be said abt it. He played with great execution—no feeling & frightful power– I was glad he was not playing on an instrument wh belonged to me. Being a Frenchman he was much applauded– We had some choruses—by Daird very pretty tho’ not very wonderfully well executed– The overture to Euryanthe was a finale wh sent us home quite happy. We walked back & at the door of our hotel met Marquis de Bouillé come to call on us– He had been Ambr at Madrid in our time & I had not seen him since. He sat & talked with us some time. We dined at the B. Embassy—& met the Swedish Minister & Mme Siebonne, Ct & Css Marochetti, Mr & Mrs Plunkett, Mr & Mrs Leigh of Lyme, Mr Atlee, Mr O’Connor, Mr Edwards &c &c. Lord Lyons asked me to take the Ambassadress’ place & the Swedish Minister took me to dinner. I sat between him & Ct Chaudordy. The Swede has a peculiarity that he easily gets tipsy wh I did not know but to my astonishment I found towards the end of dinner that he lent his head on his hand & nearly laid it down on the table. I was glad when I was told what was the matter that nothing worse had happened. I promised Mr Atlee that when next we come to Paris I would ask him to go to the play with us. We went home early. | |
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