My dear Mutz,
The performance of Lohengrin is not until Wednesday. Frau Ortrud has been given a short break. This delay was most welcome to me, since the excitement of the performance would have followed too soon upon the emotions of the rehearsal. This rehearsal took place last Saturday: I sat on the stage, and did not stir from my chair, and yet I could scarcely stand up at the end. This rehearsal far surpassed all my expectations, and for the first time in this artist’s life of toil and suffering I felt the most total sense of enjoyment, a feeling that has reconciled me to everything. I cannot begin to tell you how deep and unalloyed my pleasure was. Orchestra, singers, chorus - everything admirable, unbelievably beautiful! It is possible that the emotion and solemn mood of everyone involved in performing my work for the first time contributed a good deal to the incomparably delicate, noble and enthusiastically fiery performance: everything was strictly ordered, and yet there was not the least sense of constraint; there was something touchingly sincere about it. I sat quite still the whole time, without moving: but one tear after another ran down my face. The dear people then came up to me and embraced me in silence. Only the orchestra and chorus finally broke into loud cheers. You can imagine how I thanked them! But it was Kapellmeister Esser to whom I gave the greatest pleasure: the poor man had previously been immensely anxious lest I be dissatisfied and wished to change a number of things. And so he stood there without uttering a sound, as though thunderstruck, while I explained that anyone who had just received such a gift from heaven as this performance was incapable of voicing any kind of objection: and that it was all so admirable that I felt nothing but joy, gratitude and profound emotion. And indeed this came literally from my heart: never have I cast such amorous glances at a man as at this good and honest Kapellmeister at his desk. - In a word, dearest Mutz! it is a heavenly opera here: a mass of splendid voices, each more beautiful than the next, - chorus - orchestra - enchanting! Ander - the tenor - quite perfect; his voice, too, is not merely adequate but, where it matters, of brilliant vitality: at the same time a thoroughly conscientious artist, admirable in his vocal delivery and in his acting, entirely involved, full of life and fire. Dustmann, with her divinely expressive voice that lacks for nothing but always sounds gentle and tender, has a splendid dramatic style of delivery: she brings out each nuance so naturally and so clearly, so movingly and yet so correctly that I did not need to say a single word to her. - With these two - Tristan and Isolde - no question of it! -
My God, it really does me a power of good to be here! There is nothing more that I can report to your ladyship today. Whether I can prise these people away from here for August and September is a question I am bound to doubt. I fear it will be quite impossible. - Today - I have - just this very moment - been introduced to Count Lanskoronski, the Court intendant of the Imperial Theatres: to this man, who is said to take an interest in every little detail concerning the theatre, I was able, with a clear conscience, to say only the most flattering things; for my own part, I had the advantage over him of having been enthusiastically received here as a composer. And so we parted, I believe, as the best of friends. He has placed his theatre at my disposal for each and every one of my operas: and I am told that he is not joking, but that he means exactly what he says, and that he will keep his word. - At all events, I now feel slightly ridiculous with my laborious attempts to arrange a model performance in Karlsruhe, where I would first have to assemble all that I needed, and believe I would do better to seize the opportunity offered me here, where everything, but everything that I need is ready to hand, with a large and enthusiastic public to back me up. - On the other hand, I remain wedded to Karlsruhe as somewhere to settle down. On this point, my dear Minna, I shall soon have further and better particulars to report! At all events, a favourable and lasting change is now taking place in the circumstances of our lives: may heaven grant us the peace and reflective calm to make the right choice, and that our choice will finally bring us security and permanence. -
Fare well for today! I am afraid that I am already under siege here, and feel permanently exhausted: Tausig - and Cornelius are also here! The confounded boy is just as amusing as ever; he is no longer as insolent. -
But that’s enough! - I look forward to hearing from you, and hope it will be good news! Kindest regards to our friends, and all manner of tender greetings to our fellow lodgers! Adieu. Keep well, and be of good cheer!
Yours,
R.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 268