Most esteemed Comrade in the Dramatic Festival!
There is one thing in your proposal which I find most alluring, namely that you offer me the best, the only cast, for the Tristan rôle which could possibly persuade me now to see my long-neglected work performed. Ever since, five years ago, I coached Mme. Mallinger in Elsa, I have wished to see her as Isolde. Unfortunately, however, I am now obliged to hesitate somewhat in her case, as I cannot regard her as altogether reliable, because of the abuse to which she has subsequently subjected her talent; but perhaps I could rely on my own experience and special capacities to restore and lead her back to the road on which she was once so happily set.
You will see, however, that, particularly in respect of this rôle, I am obliged to count on my own very thorough participation in the rehearsals. I could not hand over this work to any kapellmeister. There is one man who knows how to conduct the orchestra at least—in the right tempo—but only because he has learnt to do so under my most exact instructions. But I could not trust even Bülow with the guidance of the singers—of Mme. Mallinger in particular.
And so we always come back to the old difficulty which we would so gladly evade. I must be on the spot and have full control of everything if an experiment so entirely new as the production of Tristan is to "go." (I do not, indeed, propose to take the baton myself; but as to how I manage without this immediate participation when I have a not unskilful and friendly and well-meaning kapellmeister [Eckert] at my disposal, friend Betz, who saw exactly how I dealt with The Mastersingers, can best inform you.)
Even supposing that your manager [von Hülsen] made no objection to my co-operation, I should still fear that, in the course of it, I might come upon a number of obstacles, in regard to which I should need very strong guarantees in advance.
Firstly, the repertory must be carefully arranged to fit in with the series of rehearsals. [...]—Another difficulty is that the orchestra has been reduced by your manager to an inadequate number of strings. [...]
If a possibly growing disposition in my favour is manifested in encouraging reassurances on these and other points, and if I should accordingly decide to begin rehearsals for Tristan with you, I should be obliged to reside permanently in Berlin between now and the performance—that is, January, by your calculations—and—that is just what I cannot do this year, as I have undertaken to devote the whole of this winter to taking stock of all the singers of all the theatres in Germany, great and small. I set off in the next few days and God knows where and how long I shall have to stay in various places!
I have, however, made a proposal to my esteemed patroness, Frau von Schleinitz, who has taken so much trouble on my behalf, which, if taken up, might bring me this winter into very agreeable relations with the Berlin Opera. In Berlin, as everywhere else, much useful work is to be done this winter to help on my Bayreuth enterprise. My friends are thinking of getting up a big concert, with which I personally shall have nothing to do, even if it should be arranged on a scale splendid and lucrative as that in Vienna last May. On the other hand, I have proposed, should the Royal Theatre wish magnanimously to take the initiative in this matter, that Lohengrin should be given in full under my supervision, and I have suggested that, for the sake of the cause, I should, if all goes well, personally conduct the orchestra. For this purpose I should have to stay in Berlin for a fortnight at most and—it should be a propitious beginning of acquaintance between the Berlin Court Theatre and myself, which might very possibly be continued with equal good will on both sides.
May I ask you, then, to do what you can to get this proposal accepted and not to regard my present rejection of your Tristan project as in any way due to ingratitude on my part for your enthusiastic exertions on behalf of the same? [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 659