[...] Everything is stale and flat to me. You have such great interests now that mine must seem small. To-morrow, Sunday, is the first night of my opera, Tuesday the second and last because our opera closes on April 1st. It rests with you whether you hear it or not. You do really enjoy music. You know every detail of Mendelssohn's—so give me only a morsel of your notice. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 31