The Wagner Opera festival opened in Bayreuth [Brooklyn Eagle, July 19, 1891 p.7]. This paper reported in a dispatch from London, “Bayreuth is overflowing with visitors, fully 50 per cent of them being Americans.” The Clemens party would arrive there on July 31 [July 10 to Hall]. The festival was held each year in the town of Wagner’s birth. Performances were given in a theater designed by Wagner in 1872, the Festspielhaus, with excellent acoustics.
August 1 Saturday – The Clemens party arrived in Bayreuth, Germany (Bavaria) on what Sam wrote was “about mid-afternoon of a rainy Saturday” [“At the Shrine of St. Wagner”]. During their stay in Bayreuth, Sam wrote “At the Shrine of St. Wagner,” the second letter to the McClure Syndicate. You can find this letter in Neider’s Complete Essays of Mark Twain (2000).
August 2 Sunday – Sam wrote of attending “Parsifal,” an opera he noted that “Madame Wagner does not permit its representation anywhere but in Beyreuth.”
August 3 Monday – In Bayreuth, Germany Sam wrote on Aug. 4 of his experiences of this day:
August 4 Tuesday – In Bayreuth, no performances were given; it was a rehearsal day. Sam took the opportunity to add to his article, “At the Shrine of St. Wagner,” warning visitors for the next year of the dining situation there.
August 5 Wednesday – In Bayreuth, Sam wrote on Aug. 6 of this day’s performance of “Tristan and Isolde”:
August 6 Thursday – In Bayreuth, another performance of “Parsifal” was given. Sam elected not to go, but said the “others” of his party did. He wrote of the setup of the festival:
August 7 Friday – Sam wrote from Bayreuth, Germany to Frederick J. Hall concerning details of McClure’s publication of The American Claimant, which would begin in January. Sam wanted confirmation that the second installment payment would be made at that time, and that the serial would finish in March, 1892.
August 10 Monday – A man signing himself “An Old Frontiersman” wrote from Rosebud, S.D. having just read Sam’s sketch “Luck” in Harper’s. Few writers had given him such pleasure [MTP].
August 11 Tuesday – The Clemens party left Bayreuth for Marienbad, Bohemia (Germany). Sam wrote of his last attendances at the Wagner festival operas:
TUESDAY. — I have seen my last two operas; my season is ended, and we cross over into Bohemia this afternoon. I was supposing that my musical regeneration was accomplished and perfected, because I enjoyed both of these operas, singing and all, and, moreover, one of them was “Parsifal,” but the experts have disenchanted me. They say: