But, dearest and best of friends, how you overwhelm me! - How am I supposed to take decisions for you which all of a sudden have become so important? I staked twenty years of my life on founding “Bayreuth”, because I envisaged a far-reaching idea with it. A “Wagner Theatre” in Berlin? Nothing could have been simpler: I was offered the means to do so nine years ago. But what I wanted to bring into the world was not possible there. On the other hand, what I created here, in isolation, where people have had to come to me, could, if brought to the surface in its purest form, eventually be carried much further afield: but this is a task for somebody else: you should be this person, - you have discovered how much I trust you. But this is entirely your own affair, and there is nothing else that I can contribute here, except to place my works in your hands, preferring you to any other impresario.
What you need is not my money, but my — name? Just as I have given you my works, so you may give my name to the theatre, - but not as part of a list, or even at the head of any such list of interested parties. Berlin must be your undertaking, not mine. How much more so if you join together with some artistic consortium with a view to founding this theatre, which, in a practical sense, is something I consider wholly worthy of my approval but which completely excludes me from any financial or sympathetic interest in the affair.
My very dear friend, if you cannot establish a pure (shall we say) “Wagnerian” Theatre - an exceedingly difficult task, I grant you - you would do better to give up the idea altogether.
“Parsifal” is to be performed solely in Bayreuth - for internal reasons which were so clear, for ex., to my exalted benefactor, the King of Bavaria, that he has even given up the idea of reviving the Bayreuth performances at the theatre in Munich. In view of this precedent, how could I do as you suggest with “Parsifal”? I cannot, and may not, allow it to be performed in other theatres, unless - that is - a real “Wagner Theatre” were established, a sacred stage theatre which - by touring from place to place - would propagate throughout the world what I have so far nurtured in my own theatre in Bayreuth in purity and fullness. - If we stick firmly and resolutely to this idea for your enterprise, the time may very well come when “Parsifal”, too, is handed over, not to any Court or Municipal Theatre, but to your Travelling Wagner Theatre alone.
For today my warmest thanks for so readily and willingly agreeing to my request for an advance! - You should receive the letter for Minister Ferry tomorrow at the latest.
Do not be angry, but think well of me: then all will be well! -
Cordial good wishes from
Your devoted servant,
Richard Wagner
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 488