[...] I am sorry that the score gives the compositor so much trouble—only it means that the piece will "go" all the more merrily! A comic opera has a longer libretto and consequently more notes than a tragic one, for the tempi are almost double the speed throughout. That can't be helped. [...] I am now engaged on rearranging the libretto to make it sell better in the theatres. I have altered a little. [...]
[...] For my part, my most esteemed friend, you shall learn as time goes on that I am ever mindful of the friendly services you have done me, even though I cannot but regret that your hesitation at a critical period caused great delay in our enterprises. Had you supported me ten or twelve months longer in the Biebrich days—our Mastersingers would have been on the boards three years by now. God knows it was unfortunate that you took the wrong step then. Well, that is remedied now, and I am counting now on having before me the most productive years of my whole artistic career! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 629