Best and Dearest Friend and Comrade,
I have long been waiting for a letter from you, and yet always in vain. Therefore I think it best to write what I have fresh to tell you, so that in case your letter still fails to come you may receive this for the present. So I go at once to the "business"! Formerly Heine asked me to allow my paper on the reform of the Dresden theatre and band to be printed. Now I have read your mention of the same in the notice of my writings in the Zeitschrift für Musik. Lively recollections of that former time came to me, making clear the point of view of our constitutional reformers, whose partial, and quite possible, conversion is occasionally a point of honour with me, good-natured devil as I am! Well, I thought that the appearance of my plan of reform, together with the story of its fate, might perhaps not have a bad effect on them, and so, within the last few days, I have drawn up — in form of a letter to a Dresden friend — a preface to the intended publication of my paper, which possibly may have somewhat of a spicy flavour. I now send you this preface, and at the same time a letter to Oberländer, who will hand over the manuscript to you. Reflect carefully over the matter, and then, if you think it suitable to bring the matter to light, inquire at the publishers whether this can be done decently. If you wish to set Wigand entirely aside, inquire in my name at J. J. Weber's in Leipzig (the publisher of Devrient's book, which did well); if he won't, then perhaps at Kori's, in Dresden, etc. Anyhow, I leave everything to you, on the understanding, of course, that you are willing to trouble about the matter. If it were possible to obtain any honorarium for me, I should much like it; my state of finance is rather wretched. Liszt spoke to me previously about an honorarium of thirty louis d'or for Lohengrin — instead of which I had altogether only 130 thalers. Further, he announced to me that I should receive a commission to write Siegfried for Weimar, and be paid beforehand enough to keep me alive undisturbed until the work was finished. Until now, they preserve there the most stubborn silence. Whether I should give Siegfried to Weimar, intending it to be produced there, is after all a question which, as matters now stand, I could probably only answer with an unqualified No! I need not begin to assure you that I really abandoned Lohengrin when I permitted its production at Weimar. I certainly received a letter yesterday from Zigesar, which informed me that the second performance — given, through somewhat energetic remonstrance on my part, only after most careful rehearsals, and without cuts — was a wonder of success and of effect on the public, and that it was perfectly clear that it was and would remain a "draw." Yet I need not give you my further reasons when I declare that I should like to send Siegfried into the world in different fashion from that which would be possible to the good people there. With regard to this, I am busy with wishes and plans which, at first look, seem chimerical, yet these alone give me the heart to finish Siegfried. To realize the best, the most decisive, the most important work which, under the present circumstances, I can produce — in short, the accomplishment of the conscious mission of my life — needs a matter of perhaps 10,000 thalers. If I could ever command such a sum I would arrange thus: here, where I happen to be, and where many a thing is far from bad, I would erect, after my own plans, in a beautiful field near the town, a rough theatre of planks and beams, and merely furnish it with the decorations and machinery necessary for the production of Siegfried. Then I would select the best singers to be found anywhere, and invite them for six weeks to Zurich. I would try to form a chorus here consisting, for the most part, of amateurs; there are splendid voices here, and strong, healthy people. I should invite in the same way my orchestra. At the new year, announcements and invitations to all the friends of the musical drama would appear in all the German newspapers, with a call to visit the proposed dramatic musical festival. Any one giving notice, and travelling for this purpose to Zurich, would receive a certain entrée — naturally, like all the entrées, gratis. Besides, I should invite to a performance the young people here, the university, the choral unions. When everything was in order I should arrange, under these circumstances, for three performances of Siegfried in one week. After the third the theatre would be pulled down, and my score burnt. To those persons who had been pleased with the thing I should then say, "Now do likewise." But if they wanted to hear something new from me, I should say, "You get the money!" Well, do I seem quite mad to you? It may be so, but I assure you to attain this end is the hope of my life, the prospect which alone can tempt me to take in hand a work of art. So get me 10,000 thalers — that's all!
But now let us turn from fiction to fact. I do not think that I could seriously set to work at the music of Siegfried this winter. First of all, winter in itself is my deadly enemy; secondly, I shall probably have many not very elevating hindrances. You know that I have become surety for X.'s music-directorship at the theatre here; I am therefore compelled to trouble about the theatre all through the winter. Besides, I have set on foot a special fund for the establishment of a better orchestra, and should — if this answer expectation — feel compelled to trouble about the matter. So I reckon not to be able to attack my important artistic work before the spring. (In the spring of 1852, perhaps with a rush, the performance might take place, if some rich man or other, between this and then, has made me a present of the 10,000 thalers.) I am therefore thinking, this autumn and winter, of doing some literary work. All generalities in art are, for the moment, repugnant to me; no one understands them until his nose is driven into particulars. Now my particular work would be music, and, above all, opera. Brendel, so I hear, is printing Das Judenthum, and places his paper at my disposal. Through you and K. he has hinted something about an honorarium; I see well I must be satisfied with what he gives me, and my great wish is that he give something. Will he pay me a fee for Das Judenthum? Forgive me this Jewish question, but it is the very fault of the Jews that I have to think of every farthing profit. In any case, I will send you shortly rather a long article on modern opera, about Rossini and Meyerbeer.
Within the past few days I have had a great joy. Feuerbach wrote to me, and once more I have had the good fortune to experience what it is to have to do with a really genuine fellow. There is no "however," and "but"; he says straight out, plain and plump, what he had already written to Wigand at Leipzig — who, by the way, told me nothing about it — namely, "that he failed to understand how there could be two opinions about my book; that he had read it with enthusiasm, with rapture, and must assure me of his deepest sympathy and warmest thanks." I asked Kolatschek why on earth then he should have had my book reviewed by an ass.
One thing more! The Zeitschrift für Musik always comes here very late (by carrier), and irregularly. Your excellent article on my writings — not because it is of use to me, but indeed to the asses — up to the notice of Kunst und Revolution, has only just come into my hands. Do see that Brendel sends me a copy directly through the post. I will pay the postage — that is, of course, understood!
So! Now I have chatted out what concerns me; about what concerns you I intentionally say nothing to-day, for I must first hear all about it from you yourself. I am anxiously awaiting this letter from you about yourself; then more on the subject! Go and see our good Frau R., and tell her something about me. In any case, I will soon write to her myself. In advance, I already regret that I shall have nothing suitable to write to her; in fact, nothing suitable in what concerns her and her family, for it really seems as if for a long time to come I shall have to write to her. I have really no clear insight into her situation, and can, therefore, in what concerns her, only fumble about in a superficial manner, which often gives me a painful impression, as though I were troubling her with my wishes and propositions. I salute her with my whole heart.
If I have forgotten anything to-day, I will set it right when I answer your next letter.
So farewell, dear, dear fellow, and keep me in friendly remembrance.
Your
Richard Wagner.
K. no longer lives with me. Address (for prudence' sake) again to "Fräulein Natalie Planer (bei Frau Hirzel), Sternengasse in Enge, Zurich."
I am deeply moved at your journey to Weimar, and also very glad that K. has found you well. Not to be overlooked:
When you are arranging about the printing of the manuscript on Theatre Reform, one condition must be thoroughly fulfilled for me — I must receive here, in convenient time, a complete proof for correction. It is most essential that I should be able to look once through the whole before it comes out, to be able to make, perhaps, even small alterations — perhaps only to indicate something to be omitted. You yourself might even make one change in the manuscript before it is printed, namely, towards the end, in which mention is made of the order of installation. I have, I believe, left in this manuscript the provision that the conductor should be appointed by the ministry. If it had come to the point I should have reserved to myself the right of insisting that he should also be chosen by the corporation. So change! You will find marginal queries, which I have also answered in the margin. Well, all this naturally will be left out. For printing it would perhaps be economical if, in the reform of the orchestra, those rather long sections which contain no specialities or calculations were printed in smaller type.
Title.
Plan for the institution of a National Theatre for the Kingdom of Saxony, delivered in the spring of the year 1848 to the Saxon Ministers of the Interior and of Public Worship, by Richard Wagner.
And one thing more!
Can you tell me offhand of any poor devils in Dresden, whom God in His righteous anger against the human race has made players on stringed instruments, and who, to stave off this anger from them through a winter — five to six months, travelling money being allowed, and a monthly salary of forty Swiss francs, i.e., fifteen thalers (which, through extra receipts — concerts — might amount to twenty thalers) — would come here? If you do, let me know at once.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to His Dresden Friends, Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, and Ferdinand Heine, trans. J. S. Shedlock (Scribner & Welford, 1890), No. 16