My Lord Baron,
I do myself the honour of submitting herewith a major and fairly detailed report which I felt my position and sense of duty obliged me to draw up. Three years have now gone by since I was appointed Kapellmeister to the Royal Orchestra on Your Excellency’s kind recommendation and through His Majesty’s especial favour: - the passage of such a period of time may well provoke the question as to how the institution as a whole has benefited from its latest addition. It is with a sense of sadness that I have to confess that the benefit which I might have offered in my capacity as conductor has been limited to a mere handful of achievements: that I could have been of not inconsiderable influence on the future development of the orchestra is unfortunately something I discovered did not lie within my power to achieve. I have had to accept the fact that the orchestra has always had to give way in the face of a constant conflict of interests with the theatre and the latter’s myriad needs, indeed, it was not even possible to attach to its achievements the weight and consideration which the interests of the theatre alone could claim as their rightful due. I sought repeatedly, and in formal accord with my colleagues, to protect the orchestra’s aforesaid interests, yet each time I did so, my efforts met only with the most limited success, so that it is with great sadness that I have been forced to conclude that the reason for this lies in the fact that the statements and reassurances that have been issued by the orchestra’s technical directors have, for what I assume is now some considerable time, not enjoyed the degree of trust on the part of their most esteemed superior that would alone have been capable of giving them the requisite weight of authority. So firmly convinced am I of the necessity of the same that I have taken upon myself the task of reappraising all the experiences and insights gained during the three years of my appointment and of setting them down in the form of a lucid and cogent exposition. I have spent the last three months subjecting everything I thought necessary to the strictest and most detailed scrutiny, and have done so with the greatest circumspection, carefully weighing up each point in turn, for which reason I have reworked and redrafted some of the items two, three or even four times; in this way I have finally completed the enclosed report which I beseech Your Excellency to rest assured is not attributable to any external pressure; rather does it remain, in the form in which I am submitting it, my own closely guarded secret, nor have the points which it contains been forced upon me as a result, perhaps, of any discussion or agreement with the individuals concerned. My only motivation has been the sense of obligation to which, according to the dictates of my conscience, I am enjoined by the oath that I swore to His Majesty the King.
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Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 72