Dear Anton!
Friends always have the worst of it: they are always left until last! — I have corresponded with the entire German Empire, am sick as a dog of it, and now do I first reach you — because I said to myself: "He has the most indulgence, and well knows how things stand with you!"
So!
Best thanks for your information about, and for your — presumably very troublesome! — exertions over the would-be Wagner Society in Dresden! Everything is as touching and deserving of thanks as — again presumably? — the consequences of it all will be slight. One must not expect much now from the Germans and especially from one's "strict" fellow-countrymen: if it's a matter of some silly local playing, that's something quite different, but — a great, sublime idea, unless there is a command from "on high" — à la Bismarck and so forth — oh Lord! — We realize all that, and I know also what I have to endure at the hands of the glorious German nation. — All of this does not restrain me, nevertheless, from bringing forward my question again and again. It will some time come about — if only perhaps through Russian, American, and other subsidies — and then the sense of shame — like the example, the fixed knowledge of it — will not be wanting!
I have set my life's goal on this undertaking. In May I shall remove to Bayreuth with my family and there, through the kindness of the King of Bavaria, I mean to take up my abode. On the 22nd of May, the laying of the corner-stone of the theatre will take place, after which — if all goes well — I mean to conduct a "model" performance of the Ninth Symphony.
Now — be so good — as to undertake something for me. The Saxon court must do something; however, the invitation can't exactly come from me. You nevertheless could manage that quite suitably, especially since you are Court Physician (so I hear) to Prince George. Should you perhaps require something material to help in this, then a copy of the poem of my Nibelungen Ring or other of my writings stand at your service. But — to Prince George you must go: — the Grand Dukes of Weimar, Baden, and so on, and the Kaiser have all liberally subscribed — naturally, not at my invitation: so the Wettin lords must not fall behind. — And if you have anything nice to announce, then — fire away! — Your appeal was very fine: I recognized your old, dear friendly fervour there!
Now I shall soon come again to your neighbourhood, from which I shall derive good advantages. Surely you are going to come to Bayreuth with your wife and children on the 22nd of May? How is your dear wife, always so well-disposed towards me? And your daughters? And "Karl Pusinelli"?
Now I am working on the last act of the enormous work! In the spring, the whole of it will, I hope, be ready. Wish me luck, your old friend who greets you heartily.
Richard Wagner
Source: The Letters of Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli, trans. and ed. Elbert Lenrow (Alfred A. Knopf, 1932), No. 59