Dear Minna,
The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Weimar, who have been at a Savoy spa until now, invite me to a rendezvous at Lucerne for this day week. We'll see if anything may result from this personal acquaintance, and consequently I shall go. But I also intend to combine it with my next visit to yourself, as I otherwise should have to leave my work too quickly in succession, which would much disturb me — now that I am thoroughly into it and should like to get something soon finished. So you will be relieved of my presence till a week from tomorrow, when I shall come to you straight from Lucerne — via Aarau — and tell you all fresh what I've contrived with the Grand Ducals. You agree to that, I suppose, and won't get any thoughts into your head? After the longer parting, I hope to find you've got a good step forward. I learnt very sad news from the papers yesterday through Heim. Tichatscheck is really dangerously ill: at least, he overtaxed himself and had a haemorrhage after his return to Dresden from Berlin; scarcely recovered a little from that, he attended rehearsals — apparently for Tannhäuser — and came by inflammation of the spinal cord, which naturally is a matter of life or death: good God, the suddenness of it! Certainly there still is hope, with his good constitution, but he naturally will have to be very careful for a long time in any event; so it's all up with Rienzi again!! —
And now for something passable. The Basle theatre has just been taken over by a local heir to a fortune, named Neukirch, who has got it into his head to produce Lohengrin there with myself, cost him what it may. He is afraid of no expense, an enthusiast, and absolutely bent upon the reputation of having been the first through whom I ever heard my opera. Orchestra, scenery, singers — everything as I decide. Well, that's a case for biding, not thrusting out one's horns, especially as I'm thinking of the possibility of winning this rich enthusiast for the Strassburg undertaking (Tristan) in case my amnesty itself hangs fire beyond the year. —
Now you have had all of my news. Digest them well; they're rather mixed. —
Four days ago — to the alarm of little Tausig — I went up the Uetli, and haven't regained proper use of my shanks even yet. Everything else here goes passably, quiet and lonely. Take care you're able to return soon, or the garden will all blossom away from you with this heat. You shall have strawberries in a day or two; yesterday I had green peas.
Now farewell, and send consoling tidings to
Thy Grand Ducal Guest.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 1 (H. Grevel & Co., 1909), No. 136