Dear Old Fellow!
I must trouble you.
It is necessary that a Wagner Society be formed in Dresden, in conjunction with similar societies which have already been established by themselves, for the purpose of promoting the festival-performance of my Nibelungen. My wife wrote regarding this to Tichatscheck and asked him to join hands with you. No reply. I cannot, however, let the matter rest there. Dresden may not hang back. Leipzig, Vienna, Mannheim, Munich, and Berlin are already in full activity. No intelligent person doubts the thing's being accomplished. — You have no time for such trivial matters: but you have a name that is of weight. Just look around for someone who may relieve you of the practical bother. I advise you to address yourselves to Mannheim, whose statutes can also serve as a model for Dresden. (Musikhändler Emil Heckel, in Mannheim.) — They have already been very ingenious in persuading people of little means to participate.
Let me hear something reasonable. It would certainly be a shame, particularly for Dresden, if it were to hang back.
I hope you have received the things I sent?
How are your dear ones getting along? Lord, how good they all were to me! Above all, hearty greetings and kisses for your splendid wife! But the girls were admirable also. Now — what about "Karl Pusinelli"! He must come to visit me some time soon, not only there in the tower!
Adieu, dear good Anton!
Remain good to me!
Your
Richard Wagner
Source: The Letters of Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli, trans. and ed. Elbert Lenrow (Alfred A. Knopf, 1932), No. 58