Dear and respected Sir and friend,
I feel as though my patience will soon run out with regard to my hopes for Germany and her future, and that I may then have cause to regret not having transplanted the seed of my artistic ideas to a fertile and more helpful soil in years long past.
It is not impossible that I may yet decide to emigrate to America with the whole of my family, and take my latest work with me. Since I am no longer young, I should need a very substantial concession from the other side of the ocean. An association would have to be formed that would place a lump sum of one million dollars at my disposal, thus enabling me to settle there and repaying me for all the trouble involved, half of the sum being used to pay for my settlement in some climatically beneficial state of the Union, the other half being deposited in a state bank as a capital investment at 5 per cent. In doing this, America would secure my services for all time. In addition the association would have to raise the funds necessary to enable an annual festival to be held at which I should present all my works by easy stages in model performances: we would make an immediate start with the first performance of my latest work, “Parsifal”, which I would not allow to be performed elsewhere until that time. Whatever I do in the future, whether as performance manager or as a creative artist, would belong to the American nation, free of charge and for all time, on the basis of the sum that had already been transferred to me.
I was reminded of the fact that, when you last visited me, you kindly and enthusiastically offered to manage my business affairs for me in the event of my deciding to undertake a so-called concert tour of America. I hope you will now understand why it is you, rather than anyone else, to whom I turn in order to acquaint you of this considerably more far-reaching idea? A simple concert tour aimed at earning such & such a sum of money, followed by a return to Germany, is not for me. Only a complete removal would make any sense for me! -
Would you be good enough to think this over a little, and, if it seems to you a good idea, let me know your views?
In the greatest friendship,
Your dutiful and obedient servant
Richard Wagner
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 476