Oh! dearest, dearest Friend!
Yes, yes! The King of Bavaria! As if that could make up to me for the time that has been lost! Do you not believe that if anyone could do it, I am that one, and do you think that I have not done my utmost?
Please let us be silent on this point!
You must have realised, dear friend, that what I have now set in motion has only been done in order to preserve the honour of my undertaking and my attitude toward the same.
On the other hand, do you really believe that I ever had any hope that anything would be accomplished?
Learn to know Germany and the German public! That is all—all lost! Believe me! What we accomplished last year was a miracle, and will remain so, as long as anyone knows about it. But beyond that it will never, never go: this we must realise once for all.
The performances for this year are already impossible, both from material and artistic reasons; even if the money could be obtained, it would not suffice; the artistic dangers are great. A resumption could only be thought of if my programme in regard to a Patrons' Society (but not alone on the basis of the former allotment plan) could be strictly carried out. The new one must have quite a different aspect from the old; there must be power and knowledge behind it. In the meantime I have to look after the deficit, and intend therefore to give concerts in England several months, solely for this purpose. If I return alive, I hope nothing further will be required of me than to think of myself—to recover and—forget! Well, we are so far!
Now, dear friend, get His Majesty the King of Bavaria out of your head, and continue to be kindly disposed to your
Ever faithful
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. 100