Position of the Patronat-Verein towards the project mooted.
The Patronat-Verein is aware of the goal, and resolves to employ its contributions for attainment thereof. This is facilitated by the fact that the costs of the undertaking will become considerable only in course of time, but for the first few years lesser means will suffice; whereas it is to be assumed that, if everything goes well, the support afforded us will constantly increase.
The cost of setting up the School I estimate at 10,000 marks per annum; the town of Bayreuth displays its willingness to bear a portion thereof. Consequently the Patronatverein would have to devote its monetary collections to a standing fund, and entrust the administration of the same to a Verwaltungsrath at Bayreuth.
The Patronatverein is an active partner in the School; its members enjoy the School-instruction gratis; consequently nothing qualifies for a share in that instruction, saving membership of the Patronatverein.
Admission to the public performances in the summer months, as also to the later scenic representations themselves, likewise gratis, is open to none but members of the Patronatverein.
With the whole series of performances in the year 1883 the Bühnenfestspiele are finally established, and will be repeated every year as models. To the Patronatverein belongs for all time the care of maintaining and extending them in the proper spirit, therefore also the trusteeship of the School, to which I should merely have furnished the [first?] teachers, to be replaced from time to time.
R. W.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 78