175.

DEAREST RICHARD,

The Grand Duke has been in bed for several weeks, and I shall
probably not be able to see him for a fortnight. Apart from this,
it will not be quite so easy to settle offhand the matter you
have entrusted to me, but I promise that I shall not fail to take
the proper steps, and I hope to send you satisfactory news within
twelve days or a fortnight. Berlioz has been here since Sunday,
and is busily engaged conducting rehearsals for the performance
of his "Trilogie Sacree" ("L'Enfance du Christ") and his
"Symphonic Phantastique," including the second part thereof,
which he calls a monodrame lyrique. I send you programme and
libretto.

He tells me that he is not going to London till May, and will
conduct only two concerts of the New Philharmonic. As a kind of
prelude to the Paris "Exposition Universelle", he will perform
his Te Deum on the 1st of May in the Church of St. Eustache.

During this week of the year we are generally in a state of great
confusion. Six years ago, on the 16th of February, "Tannhauser"
was performed for the first time, and on the same date two years
ago the "Flying Dutchman;" for today "Belisario" is announced,
which at any rate I prefer to the silly "Le Macon," which has
been the delight of Dresden and Weymar during the winter. Even
some of our friends were simple enough to call this rotten
musique de portieres charming and a model of its kind.