[...] My friend Liszt is damnably keen for me to write an opera for Paris: I even visited the place and have come to an arrangement with a well-known poet to the effect that I shall provide him with a complete draft for an opera libretto, in return for which he will undertake to execute the same in French and ensure that I receive a commission to compose the music from the Grand Opera (forgive me if I have expressed myself somewhat unclearly!). Apart from my Siegfried I currently have 2 tragic operatic subjects and 2 comic ones in my head, but none of them is suitable for a production in French: I now have a 5th one, of which it is a matter of indifference to me in what language it first sees the light of day: “Jesus of Nazareth”. I intend offering this subject to my French associate and in this way hope to be rid of the whole affair, since I can well imagine the look of horror on his face when he sees the poem: if he plucks up enough courage to fight alongside me in the thousand battles which must necessarily ensue once he resolves to stage such a subject, - well, I shall consider that fate has willed it so and I shall throw myself into the affair; if, on the other hand, he stands me up, - so much the better, I shall no longer be exposed to the temptation of working in the detestable gibberish of the French language, since you know my basic temperament well enough to be able to imagine that only with the greatest reluctance would I set about composing such a mishmash: if I do so at all, it is simply out of consideration for my creditors, to whom I shall send my French receipts. - [...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 94