[...] My “Foreign Minister” (as I call the opera manager Neumann) will soon be starting up his activities in London, after which he plans to tour around with the Nibelungs: it appears the affair is being treated as “seasonable”. I am very thankful that on this occasion the people in Munich refused the Vogls leave of absence to go to Paris: it was the best way of preventing the whole undertaking from taking place. All the representations which I made to Neumann concerning the impossibility of carrying out this plan were of no avail, since he claimed - not unjustifiably, I grant you - that my works have so many friends in Paris that these latter could no doubt be relied upon to help: but I know that twenty German Jews, considered there to be French patriots, are enough to prevent a single performance of any of my works from taking place there in peace. But in any case, the reason for my reluctance to have my works performed before the Paris public runs much deeper: it is impossible even to translate them into French, whereas an attempt to render them into English, Spanish or even Italian may well succeed. But any attempt to perform them in French simply looks as though it were I that was anxious to obtain the approval of this vainglorious nation, whereas it ought to serve them as a salutary confirmation that things of importance can go their own way without having to proceed along the Boulevard des Italiens. I am now working on measures to prevent all performances of my works from taking place in Paris.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 492