Kindest greetings for the New Year, my dear good old Fischer!
Say, are you still angry with me on account of that letter to L., that you always keep on grumbling about it in spite of my detailed and (I think) satisfactory explanation? And ever again, as though I consider you — i.e., thee (?) — incapable of giving the Lohengrin? If you happen — a thing I certainly do not expect — to preserve my letters, do read through again what I have already said to you in explanation on this point; and do not be unfair with me, as though you did not know what I had meant in my former letter to L. You know that the countermanding of the scenery for Lohengrin so embittered me, that I lost all desire to see this very opera performed at Dresden, which I had specially calculated for that place, and that in consequence I had still to get rid of a feeling of revenge against L. Now, however, since I have discovered that L. did not of his own impulse set aside my opera, but only did this in obedience to a hint from above, I look at the matter in quite a different light, and can no longer bear L. a grudge about it. This I have requested Tichatschek to tell him: if he has not done it, that is his affair. But, you wicked old friend, you should not always be worrying about a mistake that has been cleared up. Still I must tell you again that the performance of Lohengrin under the direction of R. or K. is for me an unpleasant and painful thought, however high may be your opinion of these gentlemen.
So for the New Year I have now told you what you astonished and vexed me with in the Old.
Best thanks for what you have sent. I have again got a lot of silly stuff into my house! How you really manage to have so many worries with the rubbish, and especially with me, is certainly a serious matter, and I am sure any other but you would long ago have lost all patience. Heaven grant that I may be able one day so to thank you for your faithful, touching, and helpful friendship, as is so often my heart's desire when I am with you in my thoughts. How often do we speak, Minna and I, of our good old friends Fischer and Heine, and especially do we go back to the early days of our arrival in Dresden, where we so suddenly found these good, these best of friends! That, too, is my most refreshing remembrance of the Rienzi days. That this love has now maintained itself so long, and far beyond our separation, is certainly one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. Most heartfelt greetings to you and Heine. Do not be angry with me for taking advantage once more of your kindness, with regard to the sending of Tannhäuser to Basle. Tannhäuser will probably soon have ended its fortunate course!
Of Tichatschek you may hear somewhat further from me, though it be but little. Farewell, and hold me dear! Auf Wiedersehen.
Your
R. W.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to His Dresden Friends, Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, and Ferdinand Heine, trans. J. S. Shedlock (Scribner & Welford, 1890), No. 142