Then laughing lightly he said:
'You can't imagine me as a knight on the way to the Grail.'
'Why not? I think you would have acquitted yourself very well.'
'The crusades were once as real in life as tennis parties are to-day; and I think infinitely more beautiful.'
'You would not have fought in the tournaments for a lady love?'
'Perhaps not; I should have fought for the Grail, like Parsifal. I was at Bayreuth last year. But Bayreuth is no longer what it was. Popular innovations have been introduced into the performances. Would you believe it, the lovely music in the cupola, written by Wagner for boys' voices, is now sung by women.'
'Surely a woman's voice is finer than a boy's.'
'It is more powerful, of course; but it has not the same quality—the timbre is so much grosser. Besides, women's voices are opposed to the ecclesiastical spirit.'
'How closely you do run your hobby.'
'No; in art I have no prejudices; I recognise the beauty of a woman's voice in its proper place—in opera. It is as inappropriate to have Palestrina sung by women as it would be to have Brunnhilde and Isolde sung by boys—at least so it seems to me. I was at Cologne last year— that is the only place where you can hear Palestrina. I was very lucky—I heard the great Mass, the Mass of Pope Marcellus. Wagner's music in the cupola is very lovely, but it does not compare with Palestrina.'