Most honored Otto the Great!
I congratulate you on your improved health. That you follow the water tap needs must bear fruits. It's fine that you will play the violin again, since a good violinist is surely needed everywhere, especially in Zurich, at least if I conduct a symphony. But whether you are well paid for it, that is a different question. It wouldn't be advisable to seek a job at the theater here for the winter. It is miserable and the pay is poor. It would amount to no more than the six or seven concerts of the Musikgesellschaft, and due to the poor financial circumstances of that society I couldn't promise you much, of course, perhaps 200–300 francs at the most. Besides this there might be an extra fee for a solo performance, and that is all. So if you want to earn anything like your Dresden salary, the prospect is bad. The same is true for the whole of Switzerland. People live mainly by giving lessons, and I don't think you would feel like doing that. However, if you wouldn't mind accepting a position for this amount, try it for the following winter, when I, too, will end by being involved. So let us both wait for the time when something really efficient will happen for the building up of the orchestra. And we shall have it. Who knows whether, within two years, I myself will not take the theater in hand in order to educate the personnel to my purposes. Then you must join up. You may also count upon it that even in the winter after next the theater will have improved. Thus if you would chance with me an improvement in the musical conditions here, you are heartily welcome. I should like to have you, for I am fond of you. Since the Ritter family shows a leaning toward Switzerland, it would be only logical if the head of the family should do the same. Karl is going to settle here, so why not the whole Rittertum at once?
I am a bad man. I should have written you long ago. I am so extraordinarily well that, with all the comforts of life, I don't know what to do with them. In order not to succumb entirely to the delights of my existence, I am working like a fool—I make the most of every moment. Even Emilie shouldn't miss Emil Devrient here. I would play her a comedy, even in a beautiful wig. A thousand greetings to the dear Ritter family and to all who belong to them.
Your
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 138