Dear Herr Brandt!
You can see what kind of people I have to do with in Darmstadt! Still no word has been received from the Kapellmeister there!!! I fear I shall be obliged to renounce all claim on the Darmstadt Orchestra. And now another thing which makes my heart heavy!
I was at the theatre again to-day, and must confess that, unless I wish to perjure myself shamefully, the architect has built my orchestra pit absolutely incorrect.
I cannot accommodate my musicians in this space. It is quite impossible! Nothing remains to be done but to remove two rows of seats from the auditorium (which is of no concern) and to take away the dividing wall and put it farther back.
I will point this out to Runckwitz to-morrow (will you have the kindness, at the same time, to put yourself into communication with Mr.—Henry VIII.*) in Leipzig.
I remember to have heard you say, on this point, earlier, that there would be no fundamental difficulties in the way of removing the wall.
It is a matter of absolute indifference to me, in the plan as a whole, if a hundred listeners more or less are accommodated. The thing is to present a perfect performance in every respect—the rest is a matter of indifference. But your Darmstadt musicians! And no one upon whom I can rely but the poor “machinist,” whom I greet most cordially as his
Faithful
Richard Wagner.
* Brückwald—his name just occurs to me!
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. 73