O, You Good, Fatherly Brother!
Best thanks for the news and the sign of life. But how can you say that I would not wait for you in Zurich? I did not even know that you would really come; I only heard a little whisper, but then again, on the top of that, that you had given it up and gone to take the waters! Besides, you would have come to Zurich too late: I had waited nine years, and at last lost patience. Solely for that reason did I go away. That you warn me to rest at last is not to the point. Heavens! how I love rest — for other people to take! To be serious: my poor wife is suffering very much; she has heart-disease, and one must have experienced that to know what it means! There is no more rest for the sufferer, nor for the persons in attendance. I hope that she is improving now, in comfort among her relatives at Zwickau.
In November she will, I think, go to Dresden, there to dispose herself and our chattels for the present. Where we shall finally settle down together after that must still be uncertain; but, in any case, I long for a definitive stay in a large town with many art facilities, in order from time to time to be able to hear, and especially to conduct, a thing which has been wanting to me so long.
For to-day, I have to thank you for your continued friendly zeal in my behalf. I have written at once to Darmstadt (Schindelmeisser) and to Munich, and insisted that you should be paid for the pianoforte arrangements. For the future I would advise you to have nothing to do with pianoforte arrangements: how the devil do they concern us? Let people go to the music-shops, and get their arrangements made from their own notes according to the score. Concerning the honorarium I have written to Munich.
Now, Heaven grant that Rienzi may bring me in something; I need it, and I shall have no new opera ready before next year. Keep scores in readiness; I will settle with Tichatschek about the expenses. I have written to all the good theatres, and hope you will soon receive orders. I was delighted at your bringing Rienzi out again in such a grand way, and the fact awakened some of the pleasantest remembrances of my life. I thank your Wilhelm heartily for the choruses, which, as I hear, went so well. Concerning Tichatschek, one must say that the fellow is a living wonder. But above all, I rejoice that he is such an excellent fellow! A thousand greetings to him!
What are Mamma and Papa doing in Little Oberseer Street? If I could only see you all soon again: I much need such a cordial!
Hearty greeting, dear old fellow. With sincere thanks,
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. 150