[...] The Dresden general management have commissioned me to send them with all speed the score of my other opera, The Flying Dutchman, as they intend to put it on at once,—immediately after Rienzi. As it is in a quite special genre (the purely romantic) and can be rehearsed very rapidly I have agreed, and it will be produced by the beginning of December—anyhow earlier than in Berlin where Lachner's opera has to come on first before they can proceed to mine. If only I could transfer the performance of my opera from Dresden to Leipzig! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 76