Dear Sir,
I learned from Frau Moritz that, since it was you who persuaded the Schwerin Court Theatre administration to concern itself with my Tannhäuser, it was you to whom I should most conveniently address myself if I desired further information about the theatre’s plans for its intended performance of my opera.
First allow me to express my sense of pleasure that, having made the acquaintance of this work of mine, you have now developed so lively an interest in it, as I must assume to be the case in view of the course which events have taken. In the light of my concern that the performance should be a good one, nothing could reassure me more than to learn that you yourself were responsible for rehearsing the singers. Experience has taught me that this is the most important part of the preparations: for the singers must, above all, accustom themselves to the fact that they are not supposed to be “singing an opera” but “performing a drama”. - The next most important thing is the staging of the work: I draw your attention most particularly to the fact that the stage directions, as indicated with great precision in the full score, are to be followed with scrupulous fidelity. Other theatres have assured me that this would most certainly be done: but the performances in question have convinced me how wantonly producers behave in this respect. It is absolutely essential that the producer should have a most detailed knowledge of the full score. My orchestral accompaniment never expresses anything for the ear to hear which is not also intended to be expressed on stage for the eye to see, be it by means of actions on stage, gestures or simply by facial expressions: if these are either omitted or fail to coincide exactly with the appropriate passage in the orchestra, an understanding of my intentions is rendered impossible. For his own part, the conductor of the orchestra will therefore have the following task to perform. First of all he must, by dint of assiduous practice alone, ensure that the orchestra is complete master of the work’s technical difficulties. Once he has succeeded in this, the conductor has from then on to deal exclusively with the performers on stage, taking his instructions solely from what happens on stage, in whose spirit and movement the orchestra must accompany the drama.
[...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 126