My dear friend Heckel,
At last I get a moment to express to you my congratulations on your splendid achievements, also my own heartfelt delight at the success of your performances. Until now, I have not been able to tear myself from my last labour at the composition of Parsifal: that now is finished, and you are the first to whom I turn myself outside again.
In your Mannheim there, you have set a most instructive example of what a valiant Will can do. Since I have had to forgo a repetition of the performances at Bayreuth, nothing but the most careful reproduction on our usual public stages could shew at least what vitality there may be in my work — unless both it and its mission were to be entirely lost and forgotten. That you went with trembling to your freely chosen task, upon comparing the means of your theatre with those of the very largest Upper-Court-stages, confirmed you in your resolution to advance according to my maxim, namely to take the matter by its spirit: a thoroughly initiated, moreover a capable, energetic, and — above all — a convinced Conductor, such a one is pledge to me of everything. Much as I have been delighted by the praise bestowed on Fischer, it hasn't in the least astonished me: I knew what he would do. It really has been a great happiness to me, that, after having gained myself a few intelligent and good conductors, at last I have found a Theatre-director to summon one of them to office. Hitherto my recommendations have always been injurious to the recommended: to our Messrs. Upper-Court Intendants, etc., nothing is more hateful than a so-called "Wagnerian," and their cry is: "Heaven help me! I'm to be saddled with a man who wants a mass of rehearsals, especially when things go wrong; and a man who won't cut out a note, notwithstanding that it all looks so much better when nicely unintelligible? No, no! I get on best with servile bunglers." Well, this time things were better in Mannheim; I hope it will also do good to future Leipzig performances, that the directorate there has willingly appointed a nominee of mine, Fischer's companion at the Bayreuth performances. And then our young Brandt! There there was something to be hoped, and the presumption that at last the whole management, to which I also owe my thanks, would be swept on to the right and proper. In such circumstances both performers and bandsmen work wonders. I have experienced it. But — the chief wonder remains — Heckel as Theatre-director! Good luck! Now I understand Fate, and greet you — in its shelter — from my whole heart!
Your trusty
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. 87