[...] I dispatched the score of The Rhinegold to you some days ago. [...]
You will soon receive the last act of The Valkyrie—which you can finish after The Rhinegold; if you were to complete it by Easter I should naturally be very pleased.
I thank you again heartily for your last package; it pleases me very greatly to know that this piece, difficult in so many parts, is already arranged so beautifully!
I am just beginning work again and think at last I shall really be finished in February. Whether I go on working then depends on whether the right mood and some fortunate change of circumstances make it possible for me to do so.
The first performance of Tannhäuser in Berlin took place recently.—Liszt telegraphed that it had gone pretty well.—[...] If you would like the rough drafts for The Rhinegold as well, I will send them with my next package.—[...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 296