After the first performance of Parsifal he [Richard Wagner] told the loudly applauding audience that he gratefully accepted their manifestations on behalf of his artists, but begged them not to summon him before the curtain in the usual way with the call of 'Author.' At the next performance, his rabid worshippers strove with all their might, by hissing and groaning, to suppress the general public's manifestations of approval, upon which he angrily exclaimed to my father, 'These Wagnerians are the stupidest people in the world ; I should like to break down the theatre doors with their heads. They must be hissing, indeed! It is disgraceful!' And he did not hesitate to tell them so to their faces, later on.