My most worthy friend,
I am somewhat late in replying to the letter which your dear wife delivered to me, but you will easily guess what manner of onerous demand is currently being placed on my time, so that I scarcely have need of any further excuse.
The visit which your dear wife paid on the townsfolk of Dresden was so brief that I wish only that she might have stayed longer & been accompanied by your good self. I was particularly keen that you should organize some musical entertainment here for the public at large - I mean a public concert at which people would have had an opportunity to hear your works, & especially your new quintet. Such an occasion would enable you to discover that you are labouring under a misapprehension concerning the present trend in public taste, & that your former prejudices are no longer justified. The age of Bellini is quite dead here, and if his mannerisms still cling, then they do so to a certain clique in high society which is no doubt the same the world over in the triviality of its taste - for reasons which I do not need to go into here. In a place where, for many years, there was only an Italian opera company, it is not surprising if a preference for Italian music should linger on, the more so since a singer like Schröder-Devrient, failing to find an outlet for her superb acting talent in our more recent German works, has thrown herself with somewhat forced enthusiasm into the portrayal of Bellini’s heroines. She captivated her audiences in these roles wherever she performed them, - including here. But now that our artists have finally succumbed to a sense of disgust at this preference, they have abandoned it of their own accord & now devote themselves with unalloyed pleasure to the study of more serious music, with the result that audiences, too, have willingly and readily accepted this new refinement of taste. In contrast to earlier times, what has emerged here is a genuine & universal longing for aesthetic enjoyment of the highest kind, yet this is precisely the point where it must be admitted that our lovers of art are poorly provided for. We have nothing here to compare with your Gewandhaus concerts, and the only wretched substitute we have on offer are the subscription concerts organized by the director of music of a military band, although it must be said that these concerts are accorded a degree of interest on the part of our audiences which might well find a more worthy outlet elsewhere. That our own orchestra has not yet been able to do anything to meet the public demand for more frequent performances of outstanding orchestral works is due to a difficulty which is soon to be removed. - For the present I can speak only of our opera performances, & as far as these are concerned, a single glance at our repertoire will suffice to show that the age of Bellini is past: compare this, for heavens’ sake! with what is now on offer elsewhere, in Berlin for example. If you go through last winter’s repertoire, what you will find on the whole is Iphigenia, Fidelio, Freischütz, Jessonda, Templar, Bluebeard etc. - Permit me to mention at this juncture that it says much for the seriousness of our local audiences that a composition such as my “flying Dutchman” was given such a warm reception here. Your remarks on this piece, after you had perused the score, confirm this observation of mine, & to judge by the reservations which you expressed concerning its excessively sombre colouring - reservations which I admit to be well-founded - one might have expected that such a work would have had no great appeal here. But since audiences have grown increasingly accustomed to the work the more often they have heard it, I believe it not inappropriate to mention this fact in order to encourage you to think more highly of the seriousness of taste which is increasingly gaining ground here. - I may add that I agree with everything which - in the light of your present knowledge of the work - you have found to say on the subject; there is only one point which alarmed me, & - I must confess, because of the issue it raises - which embittered me: that you can tell me quite calmly that there is a good deal in the work that smacks of - Meyerbeer. In the first place I do not know what in the whole wide world is meant by the word “Meyerbeerian”, except perhaps a sophisticated striving after superficial popularity: but no existing work can be “Meyerbeerian” since, in this sense, not even Meyerbeer himself is “Meyerbeerian”, but Rossinian, Bellinian, Auberian, Spontinian etc. etc. But if there were really some solid reality that could be called “Meyerbeerian”, just as we can describe something as “Beethovenian” or, for all I care, as “Rossinian”, I confess that it would have required a wonderful freak of nature for me to have drawn my inspiration from that particular source, the merest smell of which, wafting in from afar, is sufficient to turn my stomach; this would be the death-knell of my creative powers, & the fact that you have condemned me thus demonstrates clearly that your view of me is far from impartial, a fact which is perhaps attributable to your knowledge of the external circumstances of my life, since these, I admit, brought me into contact with Meyerbeer the man, to the extent that I now find myself in his debt.
- As for the general public’s making up its mind about my work, I am glad that I may now look forward to the prospect of seeing my operas more widely performed: for what the local press has to say about me is unfortunately of very little value for me & my cause. Of those critics who report for the out-of-town papers, half of them are poor devils who cannot afford to go to the theatre and whose reports therefore run along the lines, “although I have not yet seen the opera, it is said to be” etc. - while the others, who are themselves practising musicians, can clearly not conceal their professional jealousy, - I expect you have read friend Banck’s masterpiece in the Wiener musik. Zeitg. And it is entirely to be expected that Härtel’s Mus. Ztg., which carries reports from some of the most God-forsaken places imaginable, has said practically no word about the appearance of my operas. Since I know that, hiding behind this newspaper, is an eminent & widely admired composer, I cannot but hold a far from favourable view of his true character. If I were in his position, I wouldn’t give a damn what this or that journal said about me: but as things stand at present, it is bound to be a matter of concern to me that others should recommend me, purely in order for my name to become better known, since this is as essential for me and my operas as the air I breathe. —
Your quintet, my dear Schumann, pleased me greatly: I asked your good wife to play it to me twice. I still retain a lively memory of the first two movements in particular. Perhaps I should have listened to the fourth movement first, then I might have liked it better. I can see what you are aiming at, & I assure you that I am aiming at much the same sort of thing: it is our only salvation: beauty!
Farewell, my most worthy friend, and kindly remember me to your revered wife. I remain as ever
Your
most obedient servant
Richard Wagner.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 55