Wagner's Letters

Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel

November 3, 1871 · Lucerne

Overview

A brief report: the architect says the theatre cannot be begun, nor the foundation-stone laid, before March, so a meeting of Verein delegates would be premature. Wagner will visit Bayreuth at month's end about the site and still means to conduct a concert at Mannheim in the interim.

Letter

Dear Herr Heckel,

Allow me, in the thick of business, to report you just one thing: namely, that according to the architect's latest statement the building of the theatre cannot be begun, and consequently the foundation-stone cannot be laid, before March. At the end of this month I shall go to Bayreuth, to clear up all anxieties about the plot of land etc. I believe, however, that a meeting of delegates from the Vereins would have no particular object before that desired occasion in March. Until then we shall probably have to see what each Verein is able to accomplish by itself. I still remain disposed to come to you and conduct a concert in the interim: further particulars I must reserve for a somewhat freer time than the present.

Heartiest greeting from
Yours faithfully

Richard Wagner.

Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 6

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