Best of friends,
Finally, after more than three months, I have heard from you again! I was really beginning to be afraid that the news when it came would not be good, and although what you have to tell me gives me little cause for rejoicing, it nevertheless encourages me to hope that in time you may yet be fully cured. I believe your own situation is similar to that of my wife; I hope to see her fully restored to health and leading a trouble-free and carefree existence as soon as she is able to devote her attention exclusively to a life of ease and a strict diet: medicines etc are of little use in a case like hers; she is planning to go to Teplitz in May and spend at least three months there, less for the sake of any actual treatment than to be able to enjoy the charming surroundings and the clean air in total independence. My only wish is that you could accompany her there and do the same; - what does it need to make this feasible? Think the matter over and let me have a precise answer. -
I shall be able to make only the odd journey out there this summer now that I have placed myself in harness. But I cannot complain, it is an easy yoke to bear - and where it chafes, it will also yield. I am treated here with some distinction, of a kind that has almost certainly never been accorded anyone else in similar circumstances. Only six months ago I was still a vagabond who would not even have known where to get hold of a passport - whereas I now have tenure for life with a handsome salary and the prospect that it will continue to increase, and I control a sphere of influence such as has been granted to few men. No secret is being made of the fact that I am expected to undertake a thorough artistic reorganization of the musical life here, as a result of which all the proposals I care to make are accepted unconditionally, which increases the respect people have of me, since they have long been accustomed to seeing Reissiger as totally ineffectual. But so as to prevent all my time from being taken up with routine duties, a second musical director has now been appointed. I can ask for no more. - The first unfamiliar opera I rehearsed was Gluck’s Armida: everyone went into raptures at my interpretation of the piece, which is so remote musically from our own age, and at the nuances which I persuaded the orchestra and singers to observe: the King - an honest man with none of the usual airs and graces, but totally sincere in his approach to everything - lavished the greatest praise on me and conveyed his thanks to me even while the performance was still in progress. He takes a genuine and good-natured delight in me, and so I am certain, for example, that if I ever want an extended leave of absence, I need only explain that I intend using it to work on some new composition, and it will be given me at once. - You see what an agreeable position I am in, and I am increasingly conscious of the fact that this was precisely what I most needed in life: however successful my operas, I could not have survived without this security; I note with alarm to what depths our national sense of honour has sunk with respect to dramatic music, too: the long period during which our theatres were exclusively open to French and Italian music continues to have repercussions even today, when the French and Italians have been utterly discredited. If there is one opera which has caused a stir in Germany when it was performed here, it was my “Rienzi”: I am constantly receiving new evidence of the fact that this event is being discussed, from both a literary and a personal point of view, in the remotest corners of Germany: yet there is still not a single director from out of town who has shown serious signs of staging the opera! It appears they are all waiting for each other to make the first move, - and all the time that this is going on, one new French opera after another sinks without trace!! - However, since I know where the root of the problem lies, I am not down-hearted but shall strive all the more vigorously to bring about a radical cure in due course. It will be a slow process, but progress there will and must be: but that is enough about Paris! This is something I must now leave behind me for ever: we opera composers cannot be European, - so the question is - either German or French! You can see the damage that a fool like Meyerbeer has caused us; he spends half his time in Berlin and the other half in Paris, with the result that he never achieves anything anywhere, least of all in Berlin; - it is impossible to describe how ghastly it is there: but that is what happens when you try to please everybody as our friend Giacomo does! - God knows when anything will come of my Dutchman there: Meyerbeer wrote yesterday to say that it is due to be staged in May - damn the whole lot of them! Incidentally, I have already sold this opera to two other theatres, Cassel and Riga, to the former for 20 louis d’or, and to the latter for 15; - you see how modestly I have to begin. But things will soon be different! I have still not sorted myself out financially, I often have such ridiculous expenses: I’m now having to have a court uniform made which is costing me around 100 thalers! Is it not absurd? - I have still made no attempt to find a publisher for my operas, I first want to wait for them to make their way to a number of other theatres, then music dealers will have to pay a decent sum for them - but for the time being I must act discreetly. What the good people of Leipzig think of me you can discover by reading the Leipzig music journal: this organ of Mendelssohn’s has so far said practically nothing about my operas! I know from a reliable source that Mendelssohn - who is currently planning an opera of his own - is extremely jealous of me: - the Leipzig clique which now obeys Mendelssohn unconditionally does not know what sort of an expression to adopt when dealing with me - the idiots! I hope to God that Mendelssohn produces a respectable opera, then there will be two of us and we shall be able to achieve more than one on his own. - You reproach me for having gone on about Berlioz etc in my autobiography: I must begin by saying that what I wrote was not intended to appear in print: it was supposed to serve as a sketch for my biographer, and in order for him to know where he stood with me, I presented myself to him just as I am, warts and all. I was as surprised as the next man to see what I had written appearing unaltered. But, in any case, why should I make a fuss about Berlioz? He certainly hasn’t deserved it of me, as he made clear when he was here in Dresden; it was an abomination for him to have to stand by and see how successful my operas are. He is an unhappy man, and I certainly would not have written anything against him if I had previously attended the concerts which he gave here: - I felt sorry for him! -
It amused me greatly to learn that you wanted to know all about my domestic arrangements here, you old cotquean! Unfortunately, I can be of no use to you, since we are still living in furnished rooms; not until next autumn shall we be setting up our own home: then you will be welcome to come and stay with us any day. - Only reply soon to the question in the first part of my letter! - The text of the Venusberg is finished: I shall write the music this summer; everybody here is waiting for this opera. I shall send you a copy of the text within the next few days. The three copies of my portrait are for Kietz, Anders and my sister: - you, I know, are not interested in such things. And quite right, too.
Reply soon, and be of good cheer, my dear brother, sooner or later we shall be together again! Farewell and enjoy the fine spring air as best you can!
Ever yours,
Richard Wagner.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 56