Wagner's Letters

Richard Wagner to B. Schott's Söhne

November 24, 1877 · Bayreuth

Overview

Wagner asks Ludwig Strecker to print the Parsifal poem in large, good German type, modelled on the Mastersingers libretto, and announces that the title and dedication of the Siegfried Idyll will follow.

Letter

[...] In what form do you intend to publish the poem of Parsifal in the first instance? Much as I like the Latin type, I fear its unpopularity (in the publishers' interest more especially). So, if it is to be German lettering, let it be big and of good quality, please! Textual exactitude is of great moment to me. You might take the libretto of The Mastersingers as a model in the matter of different founts of type for stage directions, etc. [...]

[...] You have the Siegfried Idyll. The title and dedication will follow directly! [...]

Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 707