Esteemed Friend!
I thank you very much for the communication you have sent me. I was on the point of writing to you myself, in order to secure information regarding your condition and Richard's, since the reports circulated here about the latter's state of health were of such a nature that they aroused in me the most serious apprehension. Now God be thanked, then it has not been so bad as it was said to be here, where the talk was of brain fever, mental derangement, and the like; but the situation may, after all, have been critical enough and a nervous fever is always a dangerous illness. That you also, esteemed friend, have suffered much thereby, is natural in view of your diseased state of irritability and Richard's disposition and character. For that reason you certainly are very much in need of a change and diversion. If only it were already spring, which might lead you back to the mild waters of Soden and, after the "cure" there, bring you to us where you would surely grow well amid mental and bodily tranquillity and cheerful, amicable acquaintances. You complain in your letter about the unbearable heart-throbbing, the disquietude and sleeplessness, the want of appetite, and the icy coldness of limbs, and that the usual expedients against this will not help you. How would it be if for once you tried the pills, the prescription for which I am enclosing? They will surely be able to prepare it in an apothecary's there. Take three or four of them daily. Also perhaps a bitter tea, for instance a cold infusion of quassia, one to two cups per day, would be good. Against opium, however, I should like to warn you.
I return with all my heart the friendly New Year's greetings which you send. We all thank you for the kind remembrance which you have shown for us and ask you to preserve it undiminished. To you yourself, esteemed friend, may Heaven give mitigation of your suffering and peace of heart.
What you write me regarding the preparations for the production of Tannhäuser in Paris has interested me very much. I do not doubt that the success will be a great and decisive one, which shall decide for ever the victory of Wagnerian music. Certainly there are in Paris, just as with us, people who are able, even instinctively, to distinguish the truly beautiful and good from the mediocre, ordinary, far-fetched, and their number, though at first it be still small, will increase and finally form the majority which then perhaps will no longer be able to comprehend how that, which to them appears beyond all doubts excellent and admirable, has ever been misjudged and treated with hostility. Let Richard console himself in this way amid possible ill-favoured notices and opinions of the press or of detached, individual opponents of his works of genius.
With us his three operas rule the repertory, since Frau Bürde has — with unimpaired voice but insufficient comprehension — again appeared on the stage. Whenever a Wagner opera is given, the theatre is crowded full and the applause is always great. Unfortunately, we have not yet got to hear the Dutchman, which at first there was a prospect of giving. I lament this very much, for it would have been a great pleasure to hear the four Wagner operas one after another and to study their characteristics, as well as the course of development of Wagner's genius. Moreover, it is noteworthy that I now grant to Lohengrin the superiority, decidedly over all the others, and in it I recognize the most uniform and clear work of art. And so it is with many other persons.
Things are well with us, praise God. To be sure, my children have had the measles and just at Christmas time, but they are all well and sound again. I myself had a sick spell for ten days, in December, probably the result of a cold and great strain, but I have entirely recovered again and am being kept very busy. My good wife is ever active, and from early till late her industrious hands keep occupied, which is necessary, to be sure, with eight children, if everything is not to come to a bad state. Eric studies industriously, but then our children all are good and give us joy. I hope to be able to lead them forth, each in turn, before you, if, as I hope, you visit us in the course of the summer. I would gladly come to Paris, to the production of Tannhäuser, and I thank you for your kind invitation, but I am a slave to my profession and my fetters do not permit me to go away so far. In spirit I shall be with you and Richard. Greet the latter for me most heartily and tell him that I shall be present at his triumphs in spirit. Wife and children — Eric expressly — greet you most eagerly.
With constant devotion,
Your friend,
Dr. Pusinelli
Source: The Letters of Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli, trans. and ed. Elbert Lenrow (Alfred A. Knopf, 1932), No. 87