Dear Friend,
For certain reasons — of which I beg you to give credit above all to this one, that in consequence of something which has occurred I am particularly anxious to be free from all duty on the mornings required for rehearsal — I have requested Herr Reissiger to conduct the forthcoming choir-benefit concert in my place, and I have therefore forthwith sent him Handel's score. Decidedly not the least change will be made in the affair, whether Reissiger or I conduct the orchestra. Nevertheless, I am anxious that you should not imagine that any sort of discourtesy on my part lurks behind.
I am sure your good opinion of me will protect me from this!
Your
Richard Wagner.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to His Dresden Friends, Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, and Ferdinand Heine, trans. J. S. Shedlock (Scribner & Welford, 1890), No. 98