Happily Doblana was absent, which enabled Mitzi to assist at our interview. I told Bischoff that it was my wish to see the rôle of Lady Macbeth performed by Miss Doblana, but that this must for the present remain a secret to her father, who objected to an artistic career for his daughter.
Bischoff inclined his head without saying what he thought of my plan. Probably his conviction was that I was mad to confide my first work to a beginner, for this was what people generally believed. How many times have I been warned during the following months not to commit my opera to a "beginner"! But as it happened, the great actor found that this "beginner" knew very well what she wanted.
"I do not think, Mr. Bischoff," she said, "that your libretto is any good, and should it remain as it is, I will probably not undertake to create the part of the lady."
"Oh!" answered Bischoff mockingly, "you have not yet been on the boards, and you already have a prima donna's caprices. You will make your way!"
"There is no use in talking like this," she exclaimed. "If nobody yet has thought of making a music drama of Macbeth there are good reasons. By himself Macbeth is a dull, heavy character."
Dear me! Bischoff's face!—You ought to have seen it. It was worth while. He took it personally—he out-shakespeared Shakespeare.
"You are a very young girl," he said at last, "to utter such criticism." And, turning to me: "I did not expect, when I came here, an adversary to whom I cannot speak as I should like to on account of her sex. It is most unfair."
"Neither my sex," cried Mitzi, "nor my youth have anything to do with what you call my criticisms. At this moment I am no woman. I am but an artist, and as such I have the right to speak."
I should have gladly given whatever money I had in my pocket to be somewhere else; yet this very thought reminded me of the fact that Bischoff would bear a little more of Mitzi's argument, as there was a cheque at the end of it.
But while I pondered over these possibilities Mitzi was going on: