[...] — My beloved friend, - a gentle and homely spirit stirs at Wahnfried. The children’s mother was reborn, and - like all that relates to my precious wife - the event was designed to be commemorated by an artistic spectacle rich in allusions. Under the sensitive guidance of our uncommonly gifted friend, Paul Joukowsky, a tableau vivant was set up depicting a Holy Family. Costumes, disposition, and realization of the individual characteristics were all incomparably beautiful, with the following group being represented: Mary the mother of Jesus (Daniela) in careworn adoration of the infant Jesus (Siegfried), practising with a plane at the carpenter’s bench - (Siegfried, I should add, is learning cabinet-making with a local carpenter - it is important for his education!) - , then, behind the Madonna, listening intently to the annunciatory strains of angelic music, Joseph (portrayed by Joukowsky’s adoptive son from Naples, Peppino); above them, in the naive style of the old Italian masters, three angels on musical instruments: Blandine (playing the lute), Eva (playing the flute) and, at the very top, Isolde with a viola. To accompany this scene the opening chorale from the Mastersingers was played on our small household organ. Not only the enthusiastic expressions on the individual faces, but the overall impression, were so overwhelmingly moving that I have persuaded our friend Joukowsky to paint a picture of it, true to life; this will be his next undertaking, and I am sure it will be an outstanding success. - The principal present which I gave my wife was a copy of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony acquired from the estate of a friend long since dead, a copy which I had made as an enthusiastic but far from gifted seventeen-year-old youth exactly fifty years ago (1830) and which I later gave as a keepsake to the friend in question when I left Dresden in 1849. It is an extremely elegant copy, and is now my wife’s most prized possession.
However withdrawn our present lives, we none the less receive the occasional visit from some distant friend in the midst of this miserable winter. Heinrich von Stein paid a brief call on us in an attempt to assuage the grief which he feels at not being able to leave his sick old father for some considerable time to come; during the summer months, which his father will be spending on his estates with other relations of his, he plans to stay with us for three months each year and will then organize and take charge of our son’s continuing education and development. During his last visit I prevailed upon him to write an article for the Bayreuther Blätter on the subject of “La Renaissance”, a very interesting piece by Count Gobineau (which - I believe - we have already made so bold as to recommend for your kind consideration?); this has now been done, much to my great satisfaction, and the article will appear in the January number. This young man is of an aristocratic temperament, as is admirably proved by his style. I have great hopes of him. -
If this gossip of mine does not weary my sweet and exalted one, I shall continue and speak of another man who is, however, merely something of a curiosity. He is the opera director of the Leipzig Municipal Theatre, Angelo Neumann, a man of Jewish extraction, and strangely energetic and extremely devoted to me, in a way which - oddly enough! - I find even today is true of the Jews whom I know. He was the first person to put on a complete performance of the “Ring of the Nibelung” in Leipzig, which he did with lasting success; proud of his achievements, he now intends to win the highest renown for himself. The intendant of the Berlin Court Theatre, a man who is exceptionally limited in outlook and who has always detested me, forbade all the Prussian Court Theatres which are subject to his control in Cassel, Hanover and Wiesbaden from performing the Nibelung’s Ring there - in spite of their desire to do so - since he himself did not wish to have to make the effort of giving the work in Berlin. Angelo Neumann is now planning to give four performances of the complete cycle next May in Berlin’s large Victoria Theatre: he sought my permission to do so, and I did not refuse it to him since, of his own accord, he has formally agreed to engage only the very best singers: Materna, Jäger, the Vogls (husband and wife), Reichmann (Munich) etc. will perform the work under the direction of a conductor whom I myself have trained. Well, when this became known, Hülsen found himself in a terrible dilemma and tried to persuade the Leipzig conductor to give the performance in the Royal Court Theatre; the latter was very attracted by the idea, and sought my agreement, but I firmly refused it, and so the performance will remain, as before, at the neutral Victoria Theatre; this - on top of the Jewish propaganda — should keep Berlin in a state of great excitement for some time to come. - But Angelo is now growing even bolder, and he has asked my permission to visit Petersburg, London and the whole of North America with his army of Nibelungs, and for this purpose - in order to avoid all competition - he has requested exclusive worldwide performing rights for three years. He will pay me one tenth of the gross receipts, and thereby seek to spare me my own trip to America, which I had considered as being necessary. It is quite likely that something will come of this, and — in silence, as it were, - I can observe the wondrous workings of a fate which, having brought the King of Bavaria into my life, cannot decently withdraw now, lest it compromise itself, but which must arrange other circumstances, too, in my favour. Yes, indeed! This has all come about - and much more is to follow - because the miracle was once admitted whereby the heart of a glorious King was opened unto me! -
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 480