You could not possibly be forgotten, dearest friend, and the next few days will give me an opportunity of looking after your affairs most carefully. On the 22nd I go to Leipzig to stay there for a whole week. On Thursday, the 26th, Les Préludes and Mazeppa will be given at the Gewandhaus for the benefit of the pension fund of the orchestra, and on the 28th I am to conduct a performance of Tannhäuser in Leipzig for the benefit of Herr Behr (the Landgrave), the Mildes singing Elizabeth and Wolfram respectively. In the interval I hope I shall succeed in getting a little "Rhine copper" for the Rhinegold from the Härtels, and shall write to you at once.
Frau X. is announced to sing Ortrud on the 8th of March. She is to sing the part twice, and then appear as Antonina in Belisario. If she pleases her engagement is very probable.
I shall write very soon to Herr A., who sent me your letter by way of introduction, and I have in the meantime asked Herr von Beaulieu to let him make his début as Lohengrin or Tannhäuser.
Today, 16th February (the anniversary of the first performance of Tannhäuser, in the year 1849), we shall have a gala performance of Gluck's Armida, with Frau Köster of Berlin. A new opera, never yet performed, by a Belgian composer, M. Lassen, Landgraf Ludwig's Brautfahrt, will be put in rehearsal soon. As far as I am concerned, while "He-da! He-do!" is hammering in my head I can enjoy nothing else, either old or new, and dream only of the Ring of the Nibelung, which God's grace may soon vouchsafe to me.
The three last numbers of my Symphonic Poems will appear by the end of this month, and I shall send them to you at once. A similar thing, Die Hunnenschlacht, I completed last week. The Princess of Prussia has commanded Tannhäuser for next Sunday.
Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #4234, Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 2, No. 236