Most honoured Sir and friend,
Since it can serve no useful purpose for me to remain in Munich during the preliminary rehearsals of my “Mastersingers”, I intend to retire to the tranquillity of my Lucerne retreat at the end of this week. — Would you have the goodness to report this to His Majesty the King, in conformity with my duty in this matter, and, at the same time, convey to my exalted benefactor, whose incomparable generosity I shall always have occasion to acknowledge and to praise for granting me a refuge so conducive to my spiritual wellbeing, my unending and abundant gratitude for all the favours he has shown me? - I am already confident that I shall find sufficient peace of mind there to be able to resume work on the full score of “Siegfried”, and thus to ensure its completion within the course of this year.
As regards the future performance of this work, which my exalted benefactor has followed with such keen interest, my attention has been caught by news of a certain wish on the part of Herr von Perfall: this wish relates to the need to obtain sovereign approval for the reconstruction of the stage of the Royal Court Theatre, work which has long been felt to be necessary and which might be carried out in the course of next summer. Not only is this rebuilding work well-nigh indispensable if the Munich Court Theatre is to be put on a level with the better German theatres, it might also - as Herr von Perfall was optimistic enough to intimate to me - enable the stage of the Royal Court Theatre to meet any staging demands such as those which I make in my Nibelung dramas, and to meet them, moreover, tolerably well. In consequence of this it would not be impossible, should His Majesty the King wish it, for the separate parts of the cycle to be provisionally performed there, perhaps at yearly intervals: for ex., a start could be made next year with the “Rhinegold”, continuing with the “Valkyrie” the following year, and the whole work could be successfully produced in this way. At all events, these plans would be greatly assisted if the tenor Bachmann were to be offered a firm engagement, since, of all the aspirants to my young heroic roles, he seems to me to be uniquely suitable, which is why I make so bold as to recommend his engagement in such positive terms.
There is another especial favour which I would entreat you most kindly to convey to His Majesty. Two years ago I was most anxious that my exalted benefactor should receive possession of the original score of the “Valkyrie” even before a complete copy of it had been made for practical use; since it is now imperative that this omission be made good, I must entreat His Majesty most humbly to deign to entrust the original score to me once again for such time as is needed to copy it out. My former secretary, Hans Richter, who is now the temporary chorus master here and whom I can trust in every respect, will supervise the task of preparing this necessary copy and, in the hoped-for event of His Majesty’s deigning to grant my request, I would beg you, most honoured Sir, to be so kind as to hand over the King’s original score to this intimate friend of mine.
At the same time I make so bold as to repeat my most humble request that you send Frau von Bülow the last sheet of my biography which she has been writing down from my dictation and which His Majesty the King was recently kind enough to invite her to continue to communicate to him (in the event of his retaining his sovereign interest in it), since the point at which it must be taken up again can be discovered only by a comparison with this last sheet. -
I would finally entreat you to commend me to our most gracious lord, my beloved benefactor and patron, and to convey to him the most heartfelt blessings of one whom his grace has made supremely happy. With the most cordial greetings and good wishes for your own prosperity, I remain
Your most respectful and devoted servant
Richard Wagner
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 365