Dear Friend!
The signature of the King has just come. It guarantees a credit of a hundred thousand thalers from his own private treasury, in order that the costs of the stage machinery, decorations, and lighting may be defrayed; during the period of the loan all moneys accruing from the Patrons' Certificates shall be credited to the Royal Treasury in liquidation of the debt, until which time all the designated acquisitions remain the property of the Royal Court Secretary. This is the contract.
You can see that we are placed in a position to go forward, but have not as yet received any additional funds, and therefore remain, as before, dependent upon the support of the public if we are eventually to carry out our undertaking.
I beg of you, therefore, to proceed with that circumspection and caution in making your communications and notifications necessary to the two purposes:
1. To present this supervening relief only in the light of a guarantee for the realisation of the enterprise.
2. Not to make people believe that now nothing more is left for them to do.
We consider it, therefore, best simply to report the fact, namely:
That the proposed contracts with the painter Hoffmann in Vienna, as well as with the Royal Theatre machinist, Brandt, for the furnishing of the decorations and stage machinery, are to be closed as soon as possible.
I think this will be sufficient and refute everything. In the same way I shall now write to the singers I have selected, and also give instructions in regard to the orchestra, all of which will soon give another aspect to the matter.
I shall rejoice all the more if this gives you genuine pleasure, my dear friend, as I unfortunately enjoy but little of this pleasure, having been so wearied and tormented by all that has preceded that the success leaves me rather cold and mindful only of my duties.
Cordial greetings from house to house,
Yours,
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. 55