Heartiest thanks, dear Theodore—and these less for the matter itself than for your quick and gentle way of settling such things and passing on.
But what the devil are you about with these eternal illnesses of yours? My opinion is that you use your powers too little. Illnesses keep off me pretty well, though often enough there is the smell of the sick-room in my inside. You ought to have seen me during the fortnight that Minna was away from me. Great God, how the girl, without actually intending it, has enslaved me! She has come back for my sake although a brilliant engagement was offered her in Berlin. Furthermore, what do you think? My brother-in-law Wolfram was in Berlin at the same time as she, stayed in the same inn with her, and was her hourly companion and protector, and he who, inspired by my family, was at first violently prejudiced against her, was so converted by her love for me and her irreproachable bearing, that he writes to me: "Remain true to her; if any woman deserves it, she does!" She made a sensation in Berlin. She has refused more than four offers of marriage made her at short notice. The devil! That touches a man! Do come soon and see us. You will meet a better opera company here than you are likely to see for many a day. They really are a joy! Three kissable women singers, Mme. Pollert of Petersburg, a young and intellectual woman with large eyes—a heavenly voice, a finished singer and artistic genius; Fräulein Limbach, eighteen years old, wonderfully beautiful, young, full voice; Amalie Planer, with a splendid alto voice and a magnificent delivery [...] and then two tenors, Freimüller, the idol of our public, voice, delivery and dramatic force, and Schreiber, a young and remarkably good-looking little fellow, twenty years of age, with a melting high tenor voice. Krug is the bass singer—he was formerly in Leipzig and has now developed amazingly. Now, I tell you it really is splendid, and if I had not already decided so firmly to have my opera [Das Liebesverbot] produced first in Berlin at the Königstadt, I would certainly do it here, for I could cast it excellently.
Bring your new work with you, I am really most excited about a comedy and romance of yours. I am unbelievably industrious now and have actually only three more big numbers of the opera to work on. It will be ready for production by the end of January. Give me something soon—write—we will celebrate it riotously. Laube has written two new books—one a novel, Die Schauspielerin. I am extremely fond of Laube, he is the kind of man one meets seldom now—he has a brain and a heart—he is a delightful fellow. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 28