Honored Sir!
Although I have repeatedly and most urgently asked you to let me omit the phrase venant en aide au misérable, which no singer has so far been able to negotiate after the fatigue of the first two acts of Tannhäuser, and although you must have noticed that this phrase was beyond my powers, you nevertheless insisted that it be retained, and it was only because of my foolish reticence that I did not take a more determined stand against you. Since this phrase yesterday caused me great embarrassment before a large audience improperly admitted by you, an embarrassment about which people are already talking everywhere and which will have a most harmful effect on my success, you can, I hope, be induced to cut this phrase. If, however, I should be mistaken in this assumption, there remains no other way out for you than to look for another Tannhäuser.
Renouncing any personal success for myself, I shall be very happy indeed if I escape from this whole affair with my voice intact.
Sincerely yours,
A. Niemann
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 231