Dear Friend,
To you — therefore short and resolute, as usual.
Knapp rather wearies me with his somewhat absurdly worded clause about certain additional payments. Eilers and other excellent artists, besides poor Unger, accept the simple reimbursement; Eilers, in fact, with only ninety dollars a month. Eilers sings two principal parts for me, whereas I count definitely on nothing but Donner from Knapp, and even for that part I can get Degele of Dresden gratis. If Herr Knapp insists on his 15 marks, I shall want him only for the first week of July and the first week of August this year, and next year for the first half of June and from July 15 to August 21; he can fill up the intervals by earning money elsewhere. Candidly, this chaffering annoys me!
To Unger, Frl. König and Frl. von Müller I am writing myself. Else, much goes well; great emulation everywhere to ease me on the point of costs.
Richter just here on his honeymoon. The 11th inst. we start ourselves for Pesth and Vienna. You ought to come to Vienna for the performance on the evening of March 1 (lots of Götterdämmerung)!
Hearty greetings from house to house!
Ever and entirely
Your
Rich. 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. 56