My dear Tichatschek!
You may rest assured that your dear letter has given me extraordinary joy: you are still the old Tichatschek and with the best will I could ask no more, for with that the utmost has been said! Even before you wrote I repeatedly heard how kindly you were thinking of me and how often you remembered the time we lived and worked together. It was always a joy to me to hear this, for my recollections of you and of our life together are really the only pleasant ones of my seven years in Dresden: you were the only really cheerful and enthusiastic man in that general environment of leather, old fogies and philistines. The evenings we spent in your home after my operas were really my only recompense for the thankless drudgery and toil we endured together. It is almost with a shudder of disgust that I look back on Dresden, where every step forward cost me the trouble of a hundred steps, ninety-nine of which were in reverse. You were really the single ray of light to illumine that night.
Uhlig will report to you everything you may wish to know about me and my retired life here. I am quite pleased on the whole with my personal status; the future troubles me not in the least, for if I can't live a free and independent life I should prefer not to live at all. At least I no longer pursue an occupation which doesn't appeal to me. Never again will I be assigned to rehearsals of Martha, etc. As you know, Liszt takes endless pains to perform my operas with his entirely insufficient personnel. I am pleased about it, for even when my works are being performed on the most limited stage, I know at least that they are led by a highly gifted conductor who penetrates my spirit.
Now I am going to write an opera especially for Weimar, and should be quite satisfied with this plan only if I knew you were to be with me. Also I should like to have Johanna there; but she is wandering about the great world and her parents won't allow her time to devote herself to my works. But it was pleasant to hear from you that she thinks kindly of me. About half a year ago I once wrote her in Hamburg apologizing for not having yet answered her very friendly letter. She has not answered so far. I can almost believe that her parents are a bit uneasy about me; they may even be thinking, now that they are so well off on account of Johanna's success, that it would be human decency to offer me something in my stranded position. May they overcome that worry! I count only on those who love me because I am what I am, but never on those who want me to be something else!
Dear friend, you mention your hope of seeing Lohengrin performed in Dresden soon; Fischer also writes to me that Lüttichau has told him of his decision to give that opera in the winter and that he wishes to get the King's permission. I ask you now in all seriousness to notify Lüttichau in good time and before he takes the necessary steps, that I sincerely thank him for his friendly attitude toward my opera, but if I am to have any say in the matter, I would in no case give my consent to a performance of Lohengrin in Dresden. You, dear friend, are the only one whom I had in mind for the principal part, and who could perform it to my satisfaction. Nothing will be more painful to me than to give you up. I would not entrust my work to any of the present conductors in Dresden to be studied and performed: it is quite out of the question for Reissiger or Krebs to perform my Lohengrin. I declare it quite impossible and refrain from saying more. With Liszt it is quite different: he is a man of genius and an artist, and enthusiastically devoted to me. I could trust him with anything, as I could trust no other conductor, for no one knows better than I the sort of conductor needed to perform this opera with understanding and effect. I urge you to explain to Lüttichau before he commits himself to this, that for his own sake I wish he would not! I'm in no position to write to him myself, nor would he expect it. It is only you I am sorry for: not only shall I lose you as the interpreter of Lohengrin, but I must also deprive you of a pleasure, for you surely took every conceivable trouble to bring Lüttichau to his decision. From the bottom of my heart I thank you and beg you to forgive me if my decision ends your hopes of seeing your endeavors crowned with success.
But now let me hear from you soon; if so, you will give me the greatest joy, and if you could visit me some time that would be the best of all. Just ask Uhlig, he will tell you how glorious it is here in Switzerland! Above all, stay well. Greet your wife and child for me and keep loving me as much as you can.
Your old friend and brother
Richard Wagner
You may write to me without fear, my residence now is Enge near Zürich.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 81