[...] I am in entire agreement with your maxims for the distribution of our financial resources. They may be stated more precisely as follows:
(1) The Theatre must never be regarded otherwise than as a temporary structure. I should be satisfied if it were built only of wood (like gymnasiums and song-festival halls). It need only be solid enough not to fall in. Therefore here we can save, save—no embellishments! In this building we shall merely outline our idea and leave it to the nation to carry it out, in a great monumental pile.
(2) Appliances and scenery—everything which affects the ideal presentation of the work of art to be performed within—must be quite perfect. Nothing is to be saved here. Everything must be calculated to last a long time—nothing merely temporary. (3) Singers and musicians will only get their expenses covered, they will not get fees from me. Those who will not come for the honour and love of the thing can stay where they are as far as I am concerned. A man or woman singer who would only come to me for the sake of a wretched wage—would suit me very well, thank you! Such a person could never satisfy my artistic demands. This, my dearest fellow, is to be my miracle, by which I shall show the world how one creates the personnel to solve a problem of this kind—and my friends must have faith in it. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 655