Dearest Friend, Brother, and Regisseur,
To your noble Latin handwriting I must reply with my bad one as quickly as possible.
I am back, and thinking again of serious work. In Paris I had nothing further to attend to than the recognition of my copyright in my own operas. I was sorry to supply a fresh occasion of confusion to my Dresden confusion-counsellors. At the last moment I was obliged to countermand my first request to send two copies of my pianoforte editions, because it was only then that I received definite information as to what had to be done in conformity with the treaties. When I was informed, however, that the music had, after all, been sent off, I further wrote that the Dresden agent, Herr M., must now arrange whether it should be sent back again, or perhaps remain in Paris for other purposes. Anyhow, I am now waiting for the news that the required certificate regarding the deposition in Leipzig has arrived in Paris; for on that depend all further movements. Do be so good, and sharpen up the wits of Herr Musikhändler M. a little on this point. In general, too, I should very much like to enter into direct communication with this gentleman. I want nothing but that my advice respecting the fructification of the vested capital should be asked for and followed; and this I can only bring about by communicating directly with Herr M. But he still puts off writing to me. Meanwhile time is passing, and the pianoforte edition without words still does not appear. In Paris, on the other hand, I found in French families many copies of the full pianoforte score of Tannhäuser. They must be selling wonderfully well. So please once more earnestly pray Herr M. to write to me; he can, indeed, have all my proposals scrutinized by the lawyer. If they delay longer with the pianoforte score without words, I shall straightway fix a term within which I then give myself the right to hand over this important arrangement to another publisher; for I can no longer bear to see the object of publication so carelessly exploited.
Besides this, I have lately wanted to impart to you a wish, the fulfilment of which is now, however, rendered more difficult by the unfortunate fact that, as you tell me, the Rienzi in Dresden has been again put off until the summer. For I should like to make money out of this opera as rapidly as possible, before my latest work appears. In the hope that Rienzi might still come out in February at Dresden, I had already invited Hanover, Breslau, and Frankfort to produce it quickly. As Rienzi is now practically a dead letter, these theatres will naturally wait for the Dresden revival; so my plan has fallen through. According to it, I had intended to seek out an agent to attend to the sale of the score to the theatres. The present stock of scores was to be given to him, with the right of making copies as soon as it should be exhausted; I also proposed to give him an exact table of the charges to the different theatres, which I should have appraised according to the scale of payments made for Tannhäuser. Then the agent was to sell the opera, according to the prescribed terms for honoraria, and send me a quarterly account. In order to secure myself (and because I am very much in need of money!), he was to pay me at once 1,000–1,500 thalers in advance, in return for which I would not only pay him interest on this advance until the honoraria came in, but moreover (on condition of the advance) would adjudge him twenty-five per cent. of the profits as commission. This would certainly be a most advantageous business for an agent; but as I should have to insist upon the advance, naturally the only person who could be found ready to undertake the matter would be one who was certain of the success of Rienzi, and placed full faith in it. Now, as things have gone hitherto with the opera, this could therefore only be a Dresdener, because every Dresdener knows what there is in Rienzi, and can be sure of his affair. Do you perhaps know some one on whom one could rely? The best person would appear to me to be Herr M. Naturally, as this concerns my reserved right of sale to the theatres, it would remain a private matter of business between myself and M.; and, if he undertook it, it would be wise to keep the affair, for the present, to ourselves, at least as regards the advance; the advertisements and applications to the theatres he could issue nevertheless, simply in a private way. If you think he can scrape up the advance, do speak soon with him. Will you be so kind?
For the rest, I may inform you that I possess my original score of Rienzi; so it has not got lost. But the library of the Dresden theatre certainly possesses the first copy of the original score; why did you not let Apt of Prague have the information he wanted out of that?
Concerning Paris, I deem it possible that Rienzi may be given next winter in the Théâtre Lyrique, yet nothing is settled. I am waiting about Tannhäuser.
What, then, is your Heine doing with the Dresden Conservatorium? Cannot I learn some more particulars about it?
And why have you not brought out Rienzi yet? This has put me very much out, and also is a hindrance to my Paris prospects! Oh, you dawdlers! Well, about this, as about so many other things, I must learn to be patient. Good heavens! who would have believed that after nine years there would be no prospect for me of an amnesty!
Instead of that you must, in any case, pay me a visit in the spring, however busy you may be as Manager!
Greet Heine! Farewell, and remain good to your
Rich. 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. 148