[...] Unfortunately, my constant preoccupations have prevented me until now from doing any work on my latest compositions. After a long interruption, caused chiefly by the publication of my two operas, I finally managed to resume work on my new opera last autumn while staying at the vineyard mentioned earlier; I have now had to abandon it again, but hope to complete the score by early next year. The sets are being painted by Desplechin in Paris, but since he cannot promise to have them ready before next Easter, my opera cannot be staged before August or September of next year at the earliest; I aim to produce a great revolution with it, for I feel that, with it, I have made a gigantic step forward in the direction of my ideal. - But this is just between the two of us! -
[...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 66