[...] The desire to make a start upon some easier work, which will be less exhausting and therefore quicker to complete, has been brought back to mind not least by my present situation in which I am still having to struggle against the difficulty of performing my more serious works, and I regard it therefore as an inspired idea that happily accords with my present mood and circumstances to take in hand the immediate execution of an earlier plan of mine for a popular comic opera. I have already drawn up a complete draft. The opera is called “the Mastersingers of Nuremberg”, and the main hero is the - jovially poetic - “Hans Sachs”. The subject is exceptionally rich in good-natured drollery, and I pride myself that with this original plan, which is entirely my own invention, I have hit upon something quite unexpected and singular. The style of the piece, both in the poem and the music, shall be thoroughly light and popular, and a guarantee of its rapid diffusion to all the other theatres is the fact that on this occasion I need neither a so-called leading tenor nor a great tragic soprano.
I must confess that not only does this plan flatter to perfection my present mood, which is very much in need of relaxation and preoccupation with some lighter subject, but this resolve of mine has suddenly become especially attractive as a result of my relations with you, my dear Herr Schott. I undertake to deliver this work “the Mastersingers of Nuremberg, grand comic opera in 3 acts” complete and ready for performance by next winter. As soon as the poem is finished, I promise that I shall submit it to you at once; you will then be able to see from its character whether you yourself wish to undertake publication of the opera. For the present, I shall retain the 3000 fr. which you kindly sent me as an advance on my fee, the receipt of which I hereby acknowledge.
It is my sincere wish, my dearest Herr Schott, that, just as I - in a moment of gloom - have found pleasant relief from my burden of sorrow by means of this newly conceived plan, so, in turn, I may have brought you pleasure, and so I would beg you to have the kindness to agree to my proposal!
I feel that I need a break from the very real gravity of my everyday preoccupations in order to create something quickly which will bring me into more immediate contact with the practicalities of our present-day theatres. In this way I believe I shall make some beneficial contribution to the future realization of my more substantial and more serious plans. When things are difficult, it is often necessary to proceed by round-about means! To you all thanks are due for having favoured me with your encouragement in the course of this round-about journey!
But now one final urgent request, namely that, for the time being, you observe the strictest silence concerning the plan I have communicated to you here. Premature discussion has already been highly prejudicial to me in the past! I myself am firmly resolved not to confide in even my closest friends, in order that I may work the more uninterruptedly on the realization of this plan.
I would ask you, finally, to convey my regards to your very dear wife, and to accept the assurance of the deepest respect with which I remain
Your most obedient servant
Richard Wagner.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 271