[...] The mainstay of my courage is the rehearsing of Tristan, which now arouses high hopes. Esser's splendid perseverance and tenacity have worked wonders. He has drilled the music into the refractory Ander as if he were a jackdaw. Best of all, though, Mme. Dustmann is heart and soul in her part. She moved me profoundly, and cannot fail to carry the audience off its feet. That is no longer in doubt and I count on a great, perhaps an unexampled, success.—
As I got no answer from Weimar about giving Tristan with the Schnorrs, I am already in treaty with Prague about it. I believe it will come to my giving my operas there, Tristan especially, with the Schnorrs, between mid-May and the end of June! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 552