[...] I thank you [...] for your kind consideration of Tausig's proposition. Unfortunately, the poor fellow was ill with fever at the time, and has only just recovered sufficiently to be able to send you the two pianoforte pieces now.
There is a general demand here for a repetition of my concerts, yet they give me so much trouble and I get robbed to such an incredible extent that I cannot feel any eagerness in the matter.
In the meantime, I am really happy about the study of Tristan. In a month's time we hope to be ready for a first performance, which will be excellent in some respects (especially as regards Mme. Dustmann). How I am longing for the time when I shall be able to take up The Mastersingers again! But shall I get peace and leisure? Unhappily that is a question which still weighs upon me very heavily!—
I am very surprised that our publications are so little assisted here by public advertisement. I myself first gave news of the Five Poems to my own friends here, and the libretto of The Mastersingers, which, in Dresden, for example, has attracted much attention for the last fortnight, is absolutely unknown here, because no kind of advertisement has appeared. Families who are intensely interested in anything that comes from my pen, knew nothing of it up to yesterday. And yet there is not a doubt that now is just the moment for a particularly brisk sale, when the musical extracts from this work have been so well received and everyone is interested in the matter. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 551