My dearest friend,
Here are the two signatures. I hope that these inroads on my family’s future existence may at least have the advantage of gaining sufficient time to enable you to discover how things stand and with what kind of people I have had to deal throughout my life. This much at least I have been forced to recognize - and the certainty of this knowledge will remain with me to the end - namely, that it is not my work which has been “judged”, but - Bayreuth. My work will be performed everywhere and attract large audiences, but - people will not be prepared to return to Bayreuth. That is the long and the short of it, and the reason why they have grown so coolly indifferent towards my enterprise. I can blame the town only insofar as I myself chose it. Yet it was a great idea: with the support of the nation I wanted to create something entirely new and independent in a place which would first achieve importance as a result of that creation - a kind of Washington of art. I had too high an opinion of our upper classes. As a favour to me (and also, in part, out of mere curiosity) they put up for once with the immense inconvenience of Bayreuth, but now recoil from the idea of repeating that experience. Hence, on the whole, their coolness towards my present plight. - A leading firm in London approached me with the suggestion that I should transfer all the Bayreuth stage fittings etc. to a large London theatre, and repeat the festival there in the course of next season. If I really want them to, they will rebuild my theatre in Leipzig, and continue my work there. Würzburg or Nuremberg would have had the means to compensate me following last year’s great success, and to continue the performances there. Bayreuth could succeed only if my idea for an Academy of Music and Drama were to become a reality along the lines that I recently suggested, resulting in large numbers of people settling there. The town itself, which could expect to reap considerable advantages for many of its inhabitants at least, could ultimately present a petition to the King and the estates, etc. As for myself, all I shall probably be able to do is worry about how to cover the deficit, and get rid of - the theatre! -
I was shocked to hear of the terrible way in which the 20,000 marks recently received from Vienna had shrunk to only 7900 marks. Is this because another of Eysser’s bills of exchange has been paid?
“Dolce far niente.” - Yes, indeed! - To do nothing? - No: to accomplish nothing! that is my relaxation.
Well, as God wills. I shall always remain beholden unto you!
Sincere good wishes from
Your most obedient servant
Rich. Wagner.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 449