Dear good Friend Heckel,
After this sheaf of provisions, one word to yourself!
So!
Lo here the ceremonial papers, which, for reason of their high solemnity, I beg you to consign to the various parties in person. (You might even propose a toast at the time!) Commit to everyone the part allotted him. To Frl. v. Müller I have added a few words in writing, as touching "Erda," whom I do not now entrust to her alone. However, you already know everything from my last letter, in accordance wherewith you will distribute the parts.
To Herr Knapp I can only give out, for the present, his unconditional part — Donner, as Gunther (to be studied also by him, for reasons of prudence) is not yet quite engraved. Beyond this, however, Herr Knapp must also take over 1 clansman in the Götterdämmerung for me; all soloists, not otherwise engaged in it, take one of the 16 clansmen. Be so kind as to explain this to Herr Unger too. Everybody must be not only good — but good-natured. The clansmen's parts will follow. Herr Unger shall also receive a Siegmund-part (as understudy), but Loge will give him quite enough to do for the moment. If he can get away, I should be glad to hear him through it. At the end of March I shall be back in Bayreuth.
And now, many and still other many hearty greetings from Wahnfried, from many, and also from
Your
much obliged
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. 54