the choir if Rubinstein were not re-instated.

Everything was settled, and on

27 December/7 January 1861 Rubinstein again took up his post at the Singing
Academy. The incident merely reinforced Odoyevskys conviction that the So-
ciety had been absurdly organized. Even when the RMS Charter had appeared
in May 1859, he had warned Rubinstein that his position as director would be
a difcult one, declaring: Vous navez personne invoquer . . . car la Socit na
donn de mandat personne [You have no one to appeal to . . . for the Society
has not given a mandate to anyone], but only in its own name.27
If matters were not going entirely right for Rubinstein in Russia, at least
he had the consolation of knowing that his opera, Die Kinder der Haide, was
shortly to be produced at the Krntnetor Theater in Vienna. The plot of this
work (see Appendix B) contains echoes of Dargomzhskys Rusalka, although
in this version the male protagonist who is torn between two women is not a
highborn prince but the simple horse herdsman (Rosshirt) Wania. Spina in-
cluded the original 1861 cast when he brought out the vocal score:
Count Waldemar, an ofcer (tenor) Herr Walter
Conrad, a German tavern owner on the Herr Hrabanek
Counts estate (baritone)
Maria, daughter of the above (soprano) Frl. Krauss
Wania, a horse herdsman (tenor) Herr A. Ander
Isbrana, a Gypsy girl (mezzo-soprano) Frau Csillag
Grigori (bass) Herr Mayerhofe
Bogdan (baritone)
Pawel (bass) \ Gypsies

A Gypsy girl (mezzo-soprano)

Herr Lay
Herr Koch

Tavern owners servant

A Gypsy
The list includes at least a few distinguished names. Nine years later Gustav
Walter sang Walter von Stolzing in the rst production of Die Meistersinger in
Vienna, Gabrielle Krauss had been one of Mathilde Marchesis most promising
pupils at the Viennese Academy, and the Czech tenor Aloys Ander had also had
a notable career on the opera stage.
Rubinsteins relations with the court circles were taking a decided turn for
the worse. In a letter to Edith von Raden of Tuesday 14/26 February 1861, he
spoke of the successful staging of his Die Kinder der Haide in Vienna the pre-
vious Thursday: What a strange coincidence. Precisely on Thursdaythe day
on which I play the most lamentable role in St. Petersburgproved to be the
day on which I played the greatest role in Germany?! Is this not a system of
compensation?!28 Rubinsteins allusion to Thursday in St. Petersburg was the
day he played as the accompanist during the musical soires given by Yelena
Pavlovna at the Mikhaylovsky Palace. His disaffection was primarily caused by
an awareness of his own artistic self-esteem and the autocratic demands of the
grand duchess. At the same time the issue was broaderher perpetual interfer-
ence in matters which he considered the musicians exclusive concern. As secre-
tary to the grand duchess, it was Edith von Raden with whom Rubinstein was

90 Anton Rubinstein