[...] Things are quiet here, I am working and have been very busy, - it’s all been very successful. The Columbus Overture was recently performed at Gerhardt’s concert, - it was applauded, but appears not to have found favour with the clique which happened to comprise the greater part of the audience that evening; - I was unhappy with the performance; - I myself conducted, but it proved impossible to rouse the players to any warmth of feeling; - the ending went at least as slow again as it had done in Magdeburg. If your mother is telling the truth, the overture was to her liking. I have the most dreadful opposition here; - those who are impartial are all, I think, behind me [...]; - but the real race is dead-set against me & I am glad to have had a chance to get to know who they are; - it is the Stegmaier-Hauser clique. - I am resolved to have my opera whistled off the stage here first of all - but I shall have it translated into French, adapted by Scribe and performed at the Opéra-Comique, since that is where it belongs & since I, too, belong outside Germany, - which is why I intend returning to Magdeburg in the autumn, it is the quickest way out of here, alas! - All is well - the committee has taken over the theatre, - Bethman as director on a fixed salary & our wages guaranteed; - it’s actually happening. -
I am now off to the music festival at Dessau, - then for a few days to Magdeburg, - from there to Naumburg & Kosen, where I intend spending about 2 weeks with Laube. His “Love-Letters” gave me a lot of pleasure, - the book is very stimulating, - every page has something fresh to say! -
Minna was here - she came for 3 days, during the worst possible weather, without knowing another soul & without once setting foot outside the house, simply to enjoy my company: - things like that move me; - it is remarkable what influence I now have on the girl, - you should read her letters, - they burn with passionate desire, & we both know that that is not a quality she was born with. - She asks to be remembered to you. — [...]
Enjoy life & remain cheerful, - I am resolved to become a perfect epicure in respect of my art, nothing for posterity, but everything for our contemporaries & for the present moment: - if I succeed in capturing these people’s imagination, posterity will take care of itself; - but I shall ignore it. Adieu! A thousand thanks for your love! Adieu! [...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 11