18th December. Morning: 1. (minor rehearsal). Afternoon: 2. ditto.
19th December. Morning: supplementary rehearsal. Evening: full rehearsal.
20th December. A little private entertainment for myself and a very few immediate friends, to play through a little private composition. A favour and special politeness to be asked of 6 to 8 first and 7 to 8 second violinists, 4 viola-players, 4 violoncellists, 2 to 3 contrabassists, 1 flautist, 1 oboist, 2 clarinetists, 2 horn-players, 1 bassoon-player, and 1 trumpeter.
The parts I will bring with me.
Get as much money out of the general rehearsal as you like. Not to trifle with the character of an artistic preparation, however, the preliminary rehearsals will be confined to ourselves.
These, my estimable Heckel, are about all the directions for which you asked me.
Should anything occur, I am in Munich from the 9th to the 12th (address: Franz Mrazeck, Wittelsbacher Platz No. 3), then at Bayreuth: [Hotel] Sonne.
With cordial greetings,
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. 13