Dear Sirs,
Your offer to publish a dramatic work of my own composition is as flattering to me as it is gratifying, and arrives at a time which I must call both favourable and unfavourable at once. Favourable - because I do indeed have a work available which I should like to see published soon; unfavourable - because I am still prevented from entering Germany, a state of affairs which not only places obstacles in the way of the first theatrical performance of my new works, at which it is essential that I be present in person, but is bound to place limits on my publisher’s eagerness to take on a work of mine. As long as conditions continue to remain unfavourable, I find it difficult to decide whether or not to press ahead with the fulfilment of my wish to see my works published in the near future if, in doing so, I forfeit the advantages which I am convinced will accrue if I wait for the time when I can personally breathe life into the first performances of these works.
I could come to an agreement only with a publisher who, like me, had faith in the fate of my most mature works, who could look beyond the immediate obstacles and, as a guarantee of later success, would rely upon the experience that we have all had with my earlier works, which for a long time were deemed impracticable before finally achieving a degree of general acceptance that even I did not expect. If, in addition, I consider what at present, even given the most difficult circumstances, speaks in favour of the publication of my more recent works, and if I may assume that interest in them is so great that they will be in exceptional demand even before a theatrical performance has taken place, I may now consider that the moment has come to discuss the matter seriously with a publisher of your standing.
Given the preconditions herein indicated, I would respond to your kind offer by making the counter-offer of a dramatic composition of mine, entitled “the Rhinegold”. I now set particular store by the publication of this work, rather than any other, since, now that the publication of my “Tristan and Isolde” marks my first reappearance as a creative artist after a considerable interval of time, I am anxious to present myself to our educated audiences in as popular a light as possible, and “the Rhinegold”, especially, belongs to a genre which is very unlike that of “Tristan” but which reveals an entirely new aspect of my creative art - one that I may call the characteristically popular aspect - of a kind that I have never touched upon in any of my earlier works. As a result, I should attach great importance to the appearance of this work especially - alongside “Tristan”.
If you were to have the patience to allow me one to two years before the first theatrical performance of this work, I would briefly indicate the conditions under which I might now relinquish it to you as follows:
In consideration of the sum of Ten thousand Francs, payable immediately, I shall sell you the full score and the completed, and highly successful, piano arrangement of my dramatic composition “the Rhinegold”, with the right to publish the said work in any form in Germany, France and England, while I myself retain only the right of performance to it. The vocal score has been arranged by Herr Charles Klindworth of London, whom you would need to pay only the usual fee, to be reckoned by the page. As for the text, you would have the right to produce a cheap edition for sale at theatrical performances, but with the express reservation that you would have to come to some arrangement on this point with the bookseller to whom I, in turn, reserved the right to offer my longer dramatic poem “the Ring of the Nibelung”, in order that it may be published separately as a work of literature, in an expensive de luxe edition. The “Rhinegold” forms a self-contained and independent part of this dramatic poem, which I shortly intend to have published by a leading bookseller. - It would finally be left to your own judgement whether you preferred to engrave the full score and publish it straightaway, or to wait until such time as the first theatrical performance of the work had been assured - which I undertake to effect within two years at most.
My dear Sirs, if it is now possible for you to share my confidence in the interest with which a new work of mine of this kind is now likely to be met on the part of an educated audience not only - I may well say - in Germany, but also in France, England and even Russia, I would ask you to honour me with a prompt reply, and, in the event of your agreeing to my proposal, to be for ever assured of my genuine appreciation of the greatness of mind with which you have viewed this matter. All the manuscripts are ready to be handed over immediately in order for you to undertake the necessary instructions.
In the hope of receiving a favourable reply and in sincere gratitude for your flattering enquiry, I remain your most respectful and obedient servant
Richard Wagner.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 253