Most esteemed Sir!
I am not coming back to Bayreuth this time, as I promised you, and you will not see me again until late in the summer. I make this announcement, because I should not like you to consider me ungrateful. I herewith acknowledge myself as your debtor; your draught did me excellent service.
As for the rest, it is now decided that my great Stage Festival Play shall take place in the summer of 1873 in Bayreuth, at which time I also intend to take up my permanent residence in your city. In order that you, of whose friendly good-will I am thoroughly convinced, may be in a position to contradict all false reports as to my enterprise, I take pleasure in informing you that while it is true that His Majesty, the King of Bavaria, has granted his permission for such an undertaking, and will give considerable financial support to the same, it will nevertheless remain my personal affair, and can only be carried to a successful issue by a far-reaching coalition of the friends of my art. Consequently, just as any other person who starts out on an enterprise, I shall have to create friendly relations with the city authorities of Bayreuth; but I believe I am justified in counting upon their ready co-operation, when the significance and prominence into which the city will thereby be brought is taken into consideration.
Late in the summer I shall arrange a meeting in Bayreuth, with the necessary competent persons, in order to choose and purchase the site upon which to erect my Festival Theatre, work upon which is to be commenced immediately. At the same time I shall decide upon a building site for my own residence, and I should be greatly obliged to you if at your leisure you could assist me in finding something desirable. I had already discussed a pretty piece of meadow-land bordering on the castle park with the steward of the castle; this lot, however, is entirely lacking in a few old trees. I should be pleased if you could find out something about this for me! In the hope of being able to greet you personally in a few months, I remain, with the greatest esteem,
Yours most faithfully,
Richard Wagner.
Source: The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Caroline V. Kerr (Small, Maynard and Company, 1912), No. 1