My dear good Friend!
You have much moved and touched me by your understanding and deeply felt expression of sympathy for my situation! You know what has depressed me, for you were with me, and you will therefore pardon me for not treating you in the gay and carefree manner your friendly visit deserved.
At the end of this week I am to leave Zürich. In upper Italy, probably Venice, I'll try to arrange a study to work in. Heaven grant that I soon find again the quiet for work. This alone can help me over my life of suffering.
My wife intends to leave our little house at the end of the month: some of our goods she will sell; the best things will be stored away. It is my wish that she soon settle in Germany again with our furniture. I can't say yet what my fate is to be. I look for one thing only: peace; and I hope for one thing only: the return of my desire to work.
Friedrich has had an offer of a position here, but he wishes to return to Germany and will be especially content to begin serving you. So he gratefully accepts your conditions and is ready to serve you from the 1st of September on. But I have a favor to ask of you. My wife just now badly needs Friedrich for packing and moving. She hopes to have everything ready by the end of the month, and Friedrich should then accompany her to Saxony. If this should be delayed a few days longer, I ask you not to be angry with the servant, and to manage as well as you can without him those few days (in case of delay); I should feel much better about it. You don't mention the money for traveling and I am almost afraid that it may seem to you too much. It is getting difficult for me, too, since only nine months ago I had to pay Friedrich's way from Dresden to Zürich; nor was he able to save any money during that short time, so I take the friendly suggestion of sharing the expenses for the servant with my wife whom he is to accompany. As you may imagine, it will be hard for me now. Having just disentangled myself from the debts for furniture bought last year, I have to give it all up now and take upon myself almost twice as many responsibilities. In this matter too, so it seems, any considerable success is denied to me forever!
It's terrible that you haven't received your trunk yet. Would you send the baggage check? It might be easier to attend to it here, and Friedrich could take it along. I have marked again the cuts in Rienzi, as you asked. For the third finale I refer you to the Hamburg score. The wish of Krebs to add a number for his wife I consider insolence. You could well have had trouble with a conductor of such mentality. It was lucky that you took the matter in your own hands. Nobody else would have had the energy and authority for it. Well, inform me of the success of your noble, genuinely friendly, and artistic endeavors, for which I can't be thankful enough. A telegram would still reach me in Zürich, but a letter should be sent to Geneva (poste restante). You'll be kept informed where I am living, and for the rest of our lives under all circumstances I hope for and count on the continuation of our well tested friendship! Farewell, greet Fischer, Heine, Mitterwurzer, and my faithful Kapellmeister!
A thousand cordial regards from your
Richard W.
Perhaps Fischer will be kind enough to have some scores prepared according to the recent cuts and the Hamburg alterations.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 184