Dear Sir,
Your letter to Herr v. Perfall has just been passed on to me, and I see from it that, because of the difficulties caused by the very high tessitura of the part of “Beckmesser” in my “Mastersingers”, you find yourself unable to agree to work with us in performing this role. - I should like to try to show you that you have been misled by appearances into falsely succumbing to this fear, as you would realize at once if I were to go through the part with you. It is a comic character part and can in no way be compared with a bass buffo role in the old style: the musically high tessitura is the result solely of an impassioned, screeching tone of voice intended to bring out as much as possible; I admit that, in order to achieve this forceful intonation, I have completely avoided “singing” in the sense of a normal Italian buffo part, and conceived the part instead in such a way that it needs only a good actor, albeit one who must be enormously musical, since, although there is very little question here of any actual “singing”, the whole style of delivery rests upon a highly complicated musical basis which can be intelligible only to an experienced singer, even though the latter is not really called upon to perform as a normal “singer”. If you were prepared to incur the effort of coming to Munich for a few days - in return of course for the assurance that you would be reimbursed - it ought to be possible for me to convince you of what I mean, by performing the part myself, and in that way to dispel your misconception, a misconception which, at first sight, is certainly most understandable. I know that any bass could sing this role as soon as he found the necessary intonation: in no circumstances could a normal baritone voice achieve this, because everything would then acquire a false tenderness, whereas what is required here is a harsh and forceful accent.
Please do what you can to fulfil my request by paying us a brief visit, and be so kind as to let me know your reply without delay.
With the greatest esteem I am
Your most devoted servant,
Richard Wagner
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 364