Dearest and most valued Friend!
After being informed as to the way matters stand in your negotiations as to the publication of a piano arrangement of my Stage-Consecrating Play Parsifal, I believe it to be necessary to express myself to you in the following manner.
During the writing of the same, the nature of this, my last work, has become more and more clear to me, and I have reached the conclusion that, even under all the circumstances which made possible the performances of single numbers of the Nibelung's Ring in our Court and municipal theatres, the Stage-Consecrating Play of Parsifal, the action of which is taken directly from the mysteries of the Christian religion, could not possibly be included in the regular operatic repertoire.
When I imparted this to my noble benefactor the King of Bavaria, with the most perfect understanding, he refused immediately to have the Parsifal given in his own Court theatre, but, on the contrary, declared that only the Festival Theatre of Bayreuth was suited to such a unique and distinct performance.
In consideration of this noble decision, it is difficult to decide as to the profitableness of publishing a piano arrangement, as an actual acquaintance with this one of my works can only be gained by a visit to the proposed yearly performance in Bayreuth for all time. . . .
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. 119