Dear Friend!
I am very sorry that you also have the heart to give me and my concerns no further consideration, and only speak to me of the matter in the same strain as do my other friends. No person is able to devise ways and means; even my appeal to the patrons should be sent only “with caution,” because the times are so bad, and yet, notwithstanding this, the performances should be announced as quickly as possible! It is incredible! You inquire, in fact, about the Festival medallion, which I naturally countermanded at once, when the ever-increasing deficit was announced. What does one not expect of me!
For my part, I announce to you quite positively that I shall devote the coming summer entirely to regaining my health—for which, on account of my increasing abdominal trouble, I expect to take a protracted water-cure in November.
If I find myself restored to health, we shall then see what can be arranged for the year after next. If in the meantime the deficit is not covered, and this without further effort on my part, I intend to hand the theatre over to some enterprising person, possibly even to the Munich Royal Theatre, but not to give myself any further concern about it. Here, dear friend, my strength is exhausted. My undertaking up to this point has been a question to the German public—“Will you?” I now assume that they will not, and accordingly am at the end of my resources. I beg you to consider the matter from now on solely in this light, and, if you think it wise, also to explain summarily to my other friends about me, as they seem unable to understand.
In one of my constant sleepless nights I am seeking to create for myself some degree of comfort by unburdening my heart frankly and freely to the true and sympathetic friend, as which I have ever recognised you.
Remain kindly disposed to me!
Yours ever 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. 99