My most esteemed old Friend,
How could you delight me more, than by the good news of the admirable progress of preparations for the Mannheim performances of the Nibelungenring? If one looks closer into this state of things, it almost seems a wonder! Fate has taken its own way with my work: as they are not the ways I had originally in view, it behoves me to stand quietly and abstinently by, waiting for what may become of the thing in this fashion. That, then, is my present standpoint: I look on from a distance, rejoice at good results, and am not surprised by bad ones. But — nowhere can I mix with them. If you ever hear that I have anywhere attended the performance of a portion of that work, you may accuse me of a breach of friendship: to that it will never come!
So my heartiest thanks for the friendly invitation to Mannheim, which I beg you also to convey to the estimable gentlemen of the Grand-ducal Theatre-committee.
Full of the most grateful memories, I am ever mindful of your fervid zeal for my work and its execution, and remain
Your
most faithfully devoted
Richard Wagner.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 84