Dear Friend,
Every now and then I feel anxious about you: how are you, are you well, and have you experienced no reactionary unpleasantnesses? There are some friends, very few, for whose sake I often think of Dresden: among other things I have a warm remembrance of a passionate Beethoven Symphony, and then I am transported with delight and affection back again, in thought, amongst the Royal Musicians; yet I must frankly confess that the freedom which I here inhale in fresh Alpine draughts is intensely pleasing to me. What is the ordinary care about the so-called future of citizen life compared with the feeling that we are not tyrannized over in our noblest aims? How few men care more for themselves than for their stomachs! Now I have made my choice, and am spared the trouble of choosing; so I feel free in my innermost soul, and can despise what torments me from without; no one can withdraw himself from the evil influences of the civilized barbarism of our time, but all can so manage that they do not rule over our better self.
My friend Liszt, with devilish impetuosity, wishes me to write an opera for Paris: I have been there and arranged with a certain poet to furnish him with the complete sketch of an opera libretto, while he undertakes the execution of the same in French, and to see about a commission for me from the Grand Opera to write the music (excuse me, I have not expressed myself very clearly). Now, besides my Siegfried, I have in my head two tragic and two comic subjects, but not one of them would suit the French stage: I have also a fifth, and I care not in what language it is presented to the world — Jesus of Nazareth. I think of offering this subject to the Frenchman, and hope thus to be rid of the whole matter, for I can guess the dismay which this poem will cause to my associé. If he have the courage to hold up against the thousand conflicts which the proposition to treat such a subject for the theatre will cause, I shall look upon it as fate and set to work. If he abandon me, all the better: I am then freed from all temptation to work in the hateful jabbering language; for with my disposition, you can easily imagine that only with the greatest repugnance should I set to work on such a mishmash: if I do, it will be out of consideration for my creditors, to whom I should make over the French fees.
Into what good humour the sight of the Parisian art-economy has put me again, you will shortly see in an important article of mine in the National, Art and Revolution, which I believe will appear in German at Wigand's in Leipzig. I am living here — helped in communistic fashion by Liszt — in good spirits, and I may say prosperously, according to my best nature: my only and great anxiety is about my poor wife, whom I am expecting here very shortly. To my very great astonishment, I find that I am a celebrity here; made so indeed, by means of the piano scores of all my operas, out of which whole acts are repeatedly performed at concerts and at choral unions. At the beginning of the winter I shall go again to Paris to have something performed and to put my opera matter into order. You cannot imagine what joy one finds in frugality if one knows that thereby the noblest thing, freedom, is assured.
You know how long I was brewing in my blood the Dresden catastrophe, only I had no presentiment of the exact hurricane which would drive me thence; but you are thoroughly convinced that all the amnesties and restitutions in the world would not induce me to become again what, to my greatest sorrow, I was in Dresden. I have just a last remnant of curiosity, however, and you would give me much pleasure in letting me know how matters stand with you. My wife has never found leisure to give me news of Dresden, the theatre, and the band. Do relieve this last Dresden longing. Do you happen to know anything definite about the state of the police inquiry? The fate of Heubner, Röckel, and Bakunin troubles me much. Anyhow, these persons ought not to be imprisoned. But don't let me speak of it! In this matter one can only judge justly and adequately if one looks at the period from a lofty point of view. Woe to him who acts with sublime purpose, and then, for his deeds, is judged by the police! It is a grief and a shame which only our times can show.
Yesterday, at length, I received my scores: I looked through a little of Lohengrin at the piano, and cannot describe to you what a powerful effect this my work produced on me! Now I come to a favour which I have to ask of you. At my request you at once undertook to prepare, at your leisure, the piano score of this opera. To you, and especially to me, it must be most unpleasant to find that this work is interrupted. If you are still of the same mind, and are willing to continue to place me under obligation (always on the understanding that you will be compensated for your trouble by the future publisher of the opera), I beg you to get the score from the Dresden theatre in order to continue the piano version. Ask the chorus master, Fischer, in my name, to apply for the score for himself, in order to hand it over to you. For that purpose I enclose a few lines to Fischer, which I beg you will forward to him at once.
Now farewell, and let's hope we shall meet once again. If I should hear of any post likely to suit you in Switzerland, shall I tell you of it? This Switzerland, with its nature, its air, makes the most miserable man well and happy. I should like to bestow it on every one whom I love, even upon L.
Salute the few friends in the band who are yet willing to receive a salutation from me: among them I may probably reckon Horack. Salute Müller and H., also young Fürstenau. I rejoice that on that most fatal Tuesday evening, when I came once more to the Town Hall, it was in my power to render a good service to Fürstenau: probably he is not aware that without me it would have fared badly with him.
Tell Eisold I cannot come again to-morrow to the rehearsal of Martha; he should engage Röckel in my place. I am curious to know in what way Tietze will manage to reconcile me with the Princess A.; but I do not despair of his genius yet succeeding; on this, indeed, rests my whole hope for this life. But the man was an excellent double-bass player.
Again greetings in my name; for example, to Schlick. But, above all, delight me by sending a really long letter.
Once more farewell, and remain good to me.
Your
Richard Wagner.
Address to Mr. Alexander Müller, Professor of Music at Zurich.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to His Dresden Friends, Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, and Ferdinand Heine, trans. J. S. Shedlock (Scribner & Welford, 1890), No. 1