Dearest Friend!
I send you herewith a kind of report on Magdeburg. There is not much to be said and on the whole I have not said much. I have once mentioned you—if you do not like my article alter it as you wish. With the best will I could not altogether avoid speaking somewhat of my own personality—in any case I was bound to be cited as musical director in any report of musical life in Magdeburg. Secondly, it would be absurd to put an undeserved slight on myself, and, thirdly, my special reason for writing about my opera [Das Liebesverbot] is that no one else does and I much wish that it should be discussed. It is tragic that one is forced to help oneself! Otherwise I think I have not said too much about myself. Nevertheless, I think you will find that my name had better not be mentioned to anyone, else woe is me!
I shall probably soon see you in Leipzig, and God knows I rejoice thereat. The people here are nothing but so much filth! Adieu, my dearest Schumann.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 33