ABSTRACT
Following a week in Paris, Livy placed Susy and Clara in a French family's boarding school in Geneva. She and the others moved on to take the cure at Aix-les-Bains; the “paradise for rheumatics,” Clemens called it. Then all reunited for the Wagner festival in Bayreuth. This music-loving family, especially Clara, delighted in ten days of opera, for which they had purchased their tickets a year in advance, performed against a mountain backdrop. As this was the social event of the year, ac-commodations were scarce and restaurants crowded. When only frankfurters could be found, Clemens contented himself with eating corned beef and cabbage which Katy Leary described, “the rest of the family wouldn't look at.” Clemens reasoned if he could eat that he could stand anything, “even Wagner operas.” His taste in music was not as refined as that of the women in his family. “Whenever I enjoy anything in art it means that it is mighty poor.” So at the six-o'clock intermission, Clemens didn't mind leaving early from six hours of Parsifal to find the family a place to eat before returning for the conclusion of the opera.
