I have just received your letter, dearest child, and intend replying immediately, although I cannot tell you about the second concert until tomorrow, since it is not due to take place until this evening. I hope that it will again turn out to my satisfaction.
When your letter was written I cannot rightly say, since it is not dated. My last letter to you, with the enclosed bills of exchange for 2000 fl., will have reached you yesterday, I imagine, or today at the latest. If not, you must let me know at once. Your news is not very consoling. I understand it well enough, since I am used to things appearing very straightforward to begin with, and only recognizing the difficulties when I have to take the matter more seriously, for which the vulgar streak in people is generally to blame, making them seek their own gain in the enthusiastic efforts of others: once upon a time I might have wished for an easier life, for it seems as though everything worth having will come too late, in other words when I am already exhausted by my labours and by the need to be patient. There shall be no lack of money: in accordance with your wishes I shall shortly be sending you another large sum for Schuler. However, since I have now made up my mind to acquire my own plot of land, what has initially decided me in favour of Biebrich - setting aside all additional reasons - is the hope and prospect of being able to remain undisturbed in my present apartment until such time as the building work is completed.
If, however, the difficulties were to increase, more especially on the part of Frickhoffer, the best way of persuading him to agree to the most favourable conditions, in other words to relinquish his own plot of land, would probably be to show him that we were seriously seeking to acquire a plot of land elsewhere in the Rhinegau. May I ask you to negotiate with Herr Kraus on the matter? Is it not possible to find a pleasantly situated plot of land in one of the many attractive villages in the outlying area, from Schierstein to Winkel, Geisenheim etc? If this were the case, I would beg Herr Kraus to take over the entire matter at once. I am very much in favour of it. At all events, if we show ourselves to be seriously interested in the idea, we shall have a good chance of overcoming the chicaneries of the Biebrich set. -
My business affairs seem to be taking a favourable turn here: since I have still not heard anything from Vienna that would require me to hurry back there, I have today concluded an engagement with Moscow, under the terms of which I should be able to earn 4000 roubles in the course of a week of, admittedly, hard work. It has been decided provisionally that I shall go there a week on Thursday, in the event of my being able to arrange a benefit concert here next Tuesday, which would bring me in 2000 roubles. I shall no doubt have to put an end to this raiding expedition since - it is dreadfully tiring; not only the performances and rehearsals themselves, but all the fuss & bother connected with them, especially having to talk to so many people. I am already atoning today for having been so indulgent in accepting invitations: I slept badly and feel ill, so that I am afraid for this evening.
I spent one evening in the company of the witty & well-informed Grand Duchess Helene; she wished to get to know the Mastersingers: since I had intentionally not brought a copy of it with me, in order not to be held up at the frontier, she immediately telegraphed to Berlin for one. But the question is whether there will be a copy available even in Berlin; for I found further evidence of Schott’s asinine behaviour and pitifully inadequate business sense when, in the course of my journey through Berlin, Bülow assured me that it had been impossible for him to procure a copy of the poem. These are supposed to be “practical” people, and we are the visionaries!
I have sent some more tickets today to Kath; I think she will come this time.
Forgive me, my dearest, but I must close now, since I keep on being interrupted. In addition, my head is all confused, and your news has somewhat shattered the agreeable illusions that I had invested in furnishing my little house. God, when will anyone be able to report a really decisive success for me: how deplorable that one must struggle so hard to wrest everything from the sloth of the world! - Well, that is how it must be! -
Remember me with affection; and learn to put up with Tannhäuser at any rate, and take good care of its author, who has finally had himself photographed in Russian for you, looking in the best possible spirits, and who now sends you his very best wishes! Sincere regards to you all! I am fond of every one of you! Fare you well, my sweetheart!
Yours,
R.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 283