Dear Friend,
During the fat days of Carnival, when we are unable to rehearse, I hope at last to gain a little breathing-space to write a proper letter to your wife, to whom I long have owed an answer. Your lines just received to-day bid me send you a brief note forthwith.
The first performance is definitively fixed for the 22nd February. This really gives us ample time, and only quite unforeseen mishaps could cause a short postponement. — So come of good cheer, and take it for granted that I would send you news immediately, should a postponement occur. If you have reasons that make it desirable not to undertake the horrid journey in this inclement season of the year, you may be sure of finding performances enough to choose from in the kindlier Spring; for Tannhäuser will be played till at least the end of May — Niemann's term of contract — probably with scarcely a break.
That you wanted to come so generously to my aid at once, was worthy of a friend; in my present unparalleled strain I have not yet arrived at a clear idea of my situation; there's time enough for that, and in case of need I will remember your friendly offer. At present I haven't a notion in this regard! Lately I paid the penalty for having accepted an invitation to dinner as a great exception; I was very bad afterwards. Only the fullest repose can at all avail me after my exertions; in what these consist, you probably will soon learn closer. Enough for me to tell you that a night slept through from 1 to 8 A.M. is an ideal happiness to me, which I only taste as an utter rarity.
And now a thousand hearty greetings! Frau Mathilde is to expect a letter from the ingrate in the jours gras. Fare splendidly well!
Your
Richard Wagner.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to Wesendonck et al., trans. and indexed by William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 32