Oh! Oh! Oh! You wonderful man! How shall I praise, prize, and extol you? How well you've taken care of my Tannhäuser! What more can I bring myself to say than a hundred thousand thanks! What's the idea, in heaven's name, of letting yourself be put upon like that, as if your possible objections would make me angry, etc.? Certainly you've misunderstood Uhlig, for that he cannot have meant! Nor do I see what I could find objectionable in your (excellent!!) settings? What I indicated in that "message" is a generalization for the lesser theaters; a more detailed analysis for those theaters with greater accommodations at their disposal was taken for granted. I made only the roughest outline. Well, Ferdinand Heine! You are a deserving man, very deserving! You are a devil of a fellow who will fry in the very hottest of hells for your efforts on behalf of a heretic like me—a fate which since you can stand heat so cheerfully will not be at all unpleasant for you! I thank you from head to toe, and with everything that lies, stands, hangs, and dangles in between.
Only for one thing do I not find forgiveness in your eyes, and that's my conduct toward the Berlin management: I should regret it if you failed to understand that in no way did stubbornness or presumptuousness motivate me, but solely the most legitimate concern for the welfare of my Tannhäuser, in which connection I don't in any way mistrust the honorable and noble sentiment of Herr v. Hülsen, but I do doubt his exact knowledge of my extremely difficult position with this opera in Berlin. I immediately withdrew my royalty demand when Albert gave me to understand that Hülsen saw in it a vote of no confidence against himself; I therefore asked only for a written assurance from Hülsen that he recognizes the difficulty of my position and intends to overcome it. What happened after that and what I in turn had to do you will gather from the content of my last letter to Albert, which you should presently receive from Uhlig. Be smart, my little Heine, and understand what is at stake here.
Hülsen is still too inexperienced and is duped by Meyerbeer and Meyerbeer's agent with the King, Count Redern: the sudden change according to which they all at once believe that Tannhäuser cannot be given either on the birthday of the King or on that of the Queen (Hülsen has explained this to Albert) does not come out of the clear blue sky; this is the work of Meyerbeer, and toward him Hülsen must act with a high hand, otherwise we're both lost with Tannhäuser. For Prague I should like to have new scenery prepared after all: I'll write to them (for only out of ignorance did Stöger not ask for it), and you keep some ready!
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 124