Esteemed, dear Friend!
It is only fitting that I should address myself to you, the most active and efficient founder and promoter of a society for the furtherance of my proposed Stage Festival Play, when a decisive step is to be taken, which can be carried into effect more suitably by an intelligent and proven friend of my undertaking, than by me, the originator of the undertaking.
Powerful assistance has become necessary, if the work we have commenced is to be carried on to speedy execution; everything depends upon despatch in this matter, as it is dependent upon the endurance of my personal vitality.
In the course of two years we have reached the point where we are provided with one hundred thousand thalers by the close friends of my art; with this money we have laid the permanent foundation of the entire undertaking by erecting a Stage Festival Play theatre, the solidity of which insures its usefulness for an immeasurable period of time. But now, just at a time when there can be no further delay in giving the definite commissions for the execution of the stage machinery and decorations, the strength of the former patrons of the undertaking is exhausted, progress is necessarily retarded, and will be forfeited to a sad fate unless some decisive power comes to its assistance.
My local counsellors are of the opinion that the undertaking should be supported at any cost, up to the point of the projected Festival performances, and that we might expect with certainty to cover the costs by the support which comes to us from all directions by those interested in this unusual enterprise. With this in view, we should only need a guarantee sufficient to insure the uninterrupted progress of the work.
In order to secure such a guarantee, I recently approached my noble benefactor, the King of Bavaria, but, for reasons quite obscure to me, he refused my request.
You know that of late we have been searching for such a guarantee among particularly sympathetic and wealthy friends. Should, however, even temporary relief grow out of this attempt, I am nevertheless resolved to look for help in so significant a cause in the only direction which would impart the proper dignity to the enterprise. If I have here in mind the “Empire,” you are not unacquainted with the fact that the thought of seeing my undertaking and the Kulturwillensakt which it represents, discussed by the representatives of our Parliament, has always filled me with horror, because I feared that not a single person would be discovered among all of these who would be able to expound convincingly the rightful significance of my undertaking and defend it against the insulting defamations of the absolutely ignorant, but at the same time powerful, press. On the contrary, I have now decided to offer the first performances of my work to our victorious Emperor, as a lustrum celebration of the famous peace with France, closed in 1871. The chief thing would be to place the performance of my Nibelung work—which is constructed on entirely new lines corresponding more closely to the peculiarities of the German character—in sharp contrast with the theatrical performances with which, according to a somewhat reprehensible custom, such solemn days are usually commemorated. I venture to think that should my offer be accepted, it would express the recognition of a significant epoch in German culture. I could not be expected to express myself forcibly and convincingly on this subject; I must unconditionally look among the friends of my art, or the patrons of my undertaking, for an advocate who, armed with the detailed instructions which I have drawn up as a guide, would be able to present my project in its true significance and in a favourable light before the proper personages. In this, as well as in other matters, it fills me with pleasant encouragement to appoint you, dear and valued friend, as my choice for the position of chief mediator with your own sovereign, the Grand Duke of Baden, whom I so highly esteem. It was this model German prince who received me and my artistic undertakings with such truly enlightened favour when in 1861, after long banishment, I again put my foot upon German soil. Since that time I have had no cause to complain of any diminution in the high-hearted sentiments which greeted me at that time, and believe therefore that you will find His Royal Highness seriously prepared and favourably disposed, if you approach him with a request for assistance along the lines I have already indicated, in the name of all those who have already given their support to my cause,—among whom I count with peculiar satisfaction my royal patron himself.
It would not be fitting for me to suggest further measures for the pursuance of this course; if, however, the Grand Duke should declare himself in our favour, it is to be taken for granted that the co-operation of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Germany would naturally occur at once to my Illustrious Highness as the most effective. I should only permit myself to suggest that the Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar and Mecklenburg, as well as the Duke of Nassau, all of whom have already taken a great personal interest in my undertaking, should eventually be secured as co-operators.
If I now specify exactly what I anticipate as the crowning result of all my wishes and efforts in behalf of my undertaking, it would be to secure herewith a commission from the German Emperor for three complete performances of my Stage Festival Play, the Ring of the Nibelung, during the summer of 1876, at the Festival Theatre erected for this purpose in Bayreuth, as a first lustrum celebration of the peace made with France.
In return for this, the sum of one hundred thousand thalers—in other words, a third of the total cost—should be guaranteed in support of the undertaking. . . .
As it would not be a difficult task to specify in plain figures the number of seats which rightfully would need to be put at the disposal of the donors of such a sum, I refrain, in this communication, from any amplification of the business aspect of the matter, and beg of you, in conjunction with our valued friends in Mannheim, to take the first steps toward the realisation of the idea which I have in mind, and which, I freely admit, originated with you.
With devoted friendship,
Yours 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. 52