Dear Friend!
Solicitude as to my health will not permit me to remain here much longer. On Tuesday I shall go with my family direct to Palermo (Hotel des Palmes), and expect to return only at the last moment—in May or June.
I should be anxious about this, and fear that something in connection with the next year's Festival would be neglected, did I not feel that, thanks to your care and solicitude, everything will be arranged beforehand. I feel therefore that I may put my mind quite at rest concerning the scenic and other arrangements. All musical preparation has been assumed by Kapellmeister Levi, and Dr. Schukowsky (who will also be absent from Bayreuth during the winter) has looked after all the necessary arrangements in regard to the costumes and scenic requisites; the only point which would cause me any uneasiness would be in the event that you, dearest colleague and friend, did not consent to act as my representative in the negotiations with the Frankfort theatrical costumier.
Therefore I beg of you to consider yourself as fully authorised by me to supervise closely the work of the costumier, to take a stand against any dilatoriness, and also to make sure of his services as chief property-man with the requisite number of assistants.
The local Executive Committee will at once support you in any measure, and Herr Gross is there to listen to any complaint.
Confident of your willingness to do this, I shall set out comforted in search of a better climate.
It is time that I should do so, for I am convinced that I shall not live another year if I remain here during the winter.
I said to Schnappauf that at most there were only five days when the sun did not shine in Palermo, and he said it was in Upper Franconia during these five days.
Once again sincere thanks from a heart deeply grateful for your effective support in the past as well as for this my last undertaking; with you to help me I feel secure about everything—everything!
With the most cordial greetings.
Yours 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. 120