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Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 1

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Title: Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 1

Author: Richard Wagner
        Franz Liszt

Translator: Francis Hueffer


        
Release date: March 1, 2003 [eBook #3835]
                Most recently updated: January 9, 2021

Language: English

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Credits: This etext was produced by John Mamoun with the online distributed proofreaders team of Charles Franks


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Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 (1889)

By Richard Wagner; Franz Liszt; Francis Hueffer (translator)







TABLE OF CONTENTS



BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
CORRESPONDENCE OF WAGNER AND LISZT, Volume 1
INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION



BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH



The German musical genius Richard Wagner (1811-1883) could be
considered to be one of the ideological fathers of early 20th
century German nationalism. He was well-suited for this role.
Highly intelligent, sophisticated, complex, capable of imagining
whole systems of humanistic philosophy, and with an intense need
to communicate his ideas, he created great operas which, in
addition to their artistic merits, served the peculiar role of
promoting a jingoistic, chauvenistic kind of Germanism. There are
things in his operas that only a German can fully understand,
especially if he would like to see his country closed off to
outsiders. It is unlikely, however, that Wagner expected these
ideas to achieve any popularity. Time and again he rails against
philistines, irrational people and politicians in his letters.
With great exasperation and often depression he expressed little
hope that his country would ever emerge out of its "philistinism"
and embrace "rational" ideas such as he propagated. Add to this
the great difficulties he had in getting his works performed, and
one might assume that he felt himself to be composing, most of
the time, to audiences of bricks. Yes, his great, intensely
beloved friend Liszt believed in, fully understood, and greatly
appreciated Wagner's works, but Liszt was just one in a million,
and even he, as Wagner suggested, associated with a base coterie
incapable of assimilating Wagnerian messages. Considering the
sorry state of music and intellectualism in Wagner's time and
setting, he surely would have been surprised if his operas and
his ideas achieved any wide currency. That he continued to work
with intense energy to develop his ideas, to fix them into
musical form and to propagate them, while knowing that probably
no sizeable population would ever likely take note of them, and
while believing that his existence as an underappreciated,
rational individual in an irrational world was absurd and futile,
is a testimony to the enormous will-power of this "ubermensch."



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE



The best introduction to this important correspondence of the two
great musicians will be found in the following extract from an
autobiographical sketch written by Wagner in 1851. It has been
frequently quoted, but cannot be quoted too often, describing, as
it does, the beginning and the development of a friendship which
is unique in the history of art.

"Again I was thoroughly disheartened from undertaking any new
artistic scheme. Only recently I had had proofs of the
impossibility of making my art intelligible to the public, and
all this deterred me from beginning new dramatic works. Indeed, I
thought everything was at an end with my artistic creativeness.
From this state of mental dejection I was raised by a friend. By
the most evident and undeniable proofs he made me feel that I was
not deserted, but, on the contrary, understood deeply by those
even who were otherwise most distant from me; in this way he gave
me back my full artistic confidence.

"This wonderful friend has been to me Franz Liszt. I must enter a
little more deeply into the character of this friendship, which,
to many, has seemed paradoxical.

"I met Liszt for the first time during my earliest stay in Paris,
and at a period when I had renounced the hope, nay, even the wish
of a Paris reputation, and, indeed, was in a state of internal
revolt against the artistic life I found there. At our meeting
Liszt appeared. to me the most perfect contrast to my own being
and situation. In this world, to which it had been my desire to
fly from my narrow circumstances, Liszt had grown up from his
earliest age, so as to be the object of general love and
admiration at a time when I was repulsed by general coldness and
want of sympathy. In consequence, I looked upon him with
suspicion. I had no opportunity of disclosing my being and
working to m, and, therefore, the reception I met with on his
part was altogether of a superficial kind, as was indeed quite
natural in a man to whom every day the most divergent impressions
claimed access. My repeated expression of this feeling was
afterwards reported to Liszt, just at the time when my "Rienzi"
at Dresden attracted general attention. He was surprised to find
himself misunderstood with such violence by a man whom he had
scarcely known, and whose acquaintance now seemed not without
value to him. I am still touched at recollecting the repeated and
eager attempts he made to change my opinion of him, even before
he knew any of my works. He acted not from any artistic sympathy,
but was led by the purely human wish of discontinuing a casual
disharmony between himself and another being; perhaps he also
felt an infinitely tender misgiving of having really hurt me
unconsciously. He who knows the terrible selfishness and
insensibility in our social life, and especially in the relations
of modern artists to each other, cannot but be struck with
wonder, nay, delight, by the treatment I experienced from this
extraordinary man.

"This happened at a time when it became more and more evident
that my dramatic works would have no outward success. But just
when the case seemed desperate Liszt succeeded by his own energy
in opening a hopeful refuge to my art. He ceased his wanderings,
settled down at the small, modest Weimar, and took up the
conductor's baton, after having been at home so long in the
splendour of the greatest cities of Europe. At Weimar I saw him
for the last time, when I rested a few days in Thuringia, not yet
certain whether the threatening prosecution would compel me to
continue my flight from Germany. The very day when my personal
danger became a certainty, I saw Liszt conduct a rehearsal of my
"Tannhauser", and was astonished at recognizing my second-self in
his achievement. What I had felt in inventing this music he felt
in performing it; what I wanted to express in writing it down he
proclaimed in making it sound. Strange to say, through the love
of this rarest friend, I gained, at the moment of becoming
homeless, the real home for my art, which I had longed for and
sought for always in the wrong place.

"At the end of my last stay in Paris, when ill, miserable, and
despairing, I sat brooding over my fate, my eye fell on the score
of my "Lohengrin", totally forgotten by me. Suddenly I felt
something like compassion that this music should never sound from
off the death-pale paper. Two words I wrote to Liszt; his answer
was the news that preparations for the performance were being
made on the largest scale the limited means of Weimar would
permit. Everything that men and circumstances could do was done
in order to make the work understood. Success was his reward, and
with this success he now approaches me, saying, 'Behold we have
come so far; now create us a new work that we may go still
further.'"

Wagner's words, as above quoted, may have seemed an exaggerated
tribute of gratitude to many. After reading these letters one
comes to the conclusion that they are the expression of a plain
fact. It is a well-known French saying that in every love affair
there is one person who adores while the other allows himself to
be adored, and that saying may, with equal justice, be applied to
the many literary and artistic friendships of which, pace the
elder D'Israeli, history knows so many examples. Petrarch and
Boccaccio, Schiller and Goethe, Byron and Shelley immediately
occur to the mind in such a connection; but in none of these is
the mutual position of giver and receiver of worshipper and
worshipped so distinctly marked as in the case under discussion.

Nature itself, or, at least, external circumstances, had indeed
almost settled the matter. In the earlier stages of this
friendship the worldly position of the two men was a widely
different one. Liszt was at the time perhaps the most famous
musician alive, and although he had voluntarily abandoned an
active career, he remained the friend of kings and ecclesiastic
potentates, and the head and centre of an admiring school of
disciples.

Wagner at the same period was, in familiar language--nobody. He
had lost his position at the Royal Opera at Dresden through his
participation in the revolutionary rising of 1849, and he was an
exile from his country. As an artist his antecedents were not
very glorious. He had written three operas, all of which had met
with fair success, but none of which had taken real hold of the
public, and the Court theatres of Germany were naturally not very
prone to favour the interests of an outlawed rebel. In spite of
this disparity of fortune, it is curious to see how the two men,
almost from the first, assume the mutual position already
indicated. Liszt, from the beginning, realizes, with a self-
abnegation and a freedom from vanity almost unique in history,
that he is dealing with a man infinitely greater than himself,
and to serve the artistic and personal purposes of that man he
regards as a sacred duty.

Wagner's attitude in the matter will be judged differently by
different people, according to the opinion they have of the
permanent and supreme value of his work. He simply accepts the
position as he finds it. "Here am I," he may have said to
himself, "with a brain teeming with art work of a high and
lasting kind; my resources are nil, and if the world, or at least
the friends who believe in me, wish me to do my allotted task,
they must free me from the sordid anxieties of existence." The
words, here placed in quotation marks, do not actually occur in
any of the letters, but they may be read between the lines of
many of them. The naivete with which Wagner expresses himself on
this subject is indeed almost touching, and it must be owned that
his demands for help are, according to English notions at least,
extremely modest. A pension of 300 thalers, or about,œ45 of our
money, which he expects from the Grand Duke of Weimar for the
performing right of his operas, is mentioned on one occasion as
the summit of his desire. Unfortunately, even this small sum was
not forthcoming, and Wagner accordingly for a long time depended
upon the kindness of his friends and the stray sums which the
royalties on his operas brought him as his sole support. He for
himself, as he more than once declares, would not have feared
poverty, and with the touch of the dramatic element in his
nature, which was peculiar to him, would perhaps have found a
certain pleasure in going through the world, an artistic
Belisarius asking the lovers of his art for their obolus. But he
had a wife (his first wife), weak in health, and anxious of mind,
and to protect her from every care is his chief desire--a desire
which has something beautiful and pathetic in it, and is the
redeeming feature of the many appeals for a loan, and sometimes
for a present, which occur in these letters.

Liszt was only too willing to give, but his means were extremely
limited. He had realized large sums during his artistic career;
but he was liberal almost to a fault, and poor artists, inundated
Hungarian peasants, and the Beethoven monument at Bonn profited a
great deal more by his successes than he did himself. What little
remained of his savings had been settled upon his aged mother and
his three children, and at the time here alluded to his only
fixed income was the salary of less than [pounds] 200, which he
derived from the Weimar Theatre. This explanation he himself
gives to Wagner, in answer to the following remarkable sentence
in one of that master's letters:--"I once more return to the
question, can you let me have the 1,000 francs as a gift, and
would it be possible for you to guarantee me the same annual sum
for the next two years?" The 1,000 francs was forthcoming soon
afterwards, but poor Liszt had to decline the additional
obligation for two other years.

The above passage is quoted as an instance of many others, and
one must admire the candour of Wagner's widow, who has not
suppressed a single touch in the picture of this beautiful
friendship. But Liszt's help was not limited to material things.
What was infinitely more valuable to Wagner, and what excited his
gratitude to even more superlative utterance, was the confidence
which Liszt showed in his genius, and without which, it is no
exaggeration to say, Wagner's greatest works would probably have
remained unwritten.

The first performance of "Lohengrin" at Weimar, which was really
the starting-point of his fame, has already been alluded to.
Every further step in his career was watched and encouraged by
the loving sympathy of Liszt, and when Wagner, overpowered by the
grandeur and difficulties of his "Nibelungen" scheme, was on the
point of laying down the pen, it was Liszt who urged him to
continue in his arduous task, and to go on in spite of all
discouragement.

It must not, however, be thought that Wagner alone derived
benefits from this remarkable friendship. Not only did he in his
turn encourage Liszt in the career of a composer of great and
novel works, but he distinctly raised the intellectual and
artistic level of his friend. Liszt's nature was of a noble, one
may say, ideal kind, but he had lived in dangerous surroundings,
and the influence of the great world and of the glaring publicity
in which a virtuoso moves, had left its trace on his
individuality. Here, then, the uncompromising idealism, the
world-defying artistic conviction of Wagner, served as a tonic to
his character. If the reader will refer to Letter 21, or at least
to that portion of it which has been vouchsafed by Madame Wagner,
he will see how necessary the administration of such a tonic was
to a man who even at that time could think it necessary to
deprecate the "superideal" character of "Lohengrin", and to
advise in a scarcely disguised manner that the Knight of the
Grail should be brought a little more within the comprehension of
ordinary people. All the more beautiful is it to see how Liszt is
ultimately carried away by the enthusiasm of his great friend,
how he also defies the world, and adopts the device "L'art pour
l'art" as his guiding principle. Altogether the two friends might
have said to each other in the words of Juliet:--

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more
I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite." A few
words should be said of the spirit in which the translator has
undertaken his extremely difficult task. There are in these pages
many things which are of comparatively little interest to the
English reader,--allusions to circumstances and persons with
which he cannot be expected to be familiar, especially as the
latter are frequently veiled by initials. There is no doubt that
judicious omissions might have made these pages more readable and
more amusing. But then such a book as this is not meant to amuse.
It is almost of a monumental character, and his deep respect for
that character has induced the translator to produce its every
feature,--a remark which applies to manner no less than to
matter. In consequence, not a line has been omitted, and the
manners and mannerisms of the writers have been preserved as far
as the difference of the two languages would allow. Such
effusions of German enthusiasm as "dearest, best, most unique of
friends," "glorious, great man," and the italics which both
Wagner and Liszt employ with a profusion of which any lady might
be proud, have been scrupulously preserved. These slight touches
give a racy flavour to the letters; and although they may
occasionally call forth a smile, they will, no doubt, be
appreciated by those who with Sterne "can see the precise and
distinguishing marks of national character more in these
nonsensical minutiae than in the most important matters of
state."

That the task of reproducing these minutiae without doing too
much violence to the English idiom was an extremely difficult
one, the experienced reader need not be told. Liszt, it is true,
writes generally in a simple and straightforward manner, and his
letters, especially those written in French, present no very
great obstacles; but with Wagner the case is different. He also
is plain and lucid enough where the ordinary affairs of life are
concerned, but as soon as he comes upon a topic that really
interests him, be it music or Buddhism, metaphysics or the
iniquities of the Jews, his brain gets on fire, and his pen
courses over the paper with the swiftness and recklessness of a
race-horse, regardless of the obstacles of style and
construction, and sometimes of grammar. His meaning is always
deep, but to arrive at that meaning in such terrible letters, for
example, as those numbered 27, 35, 107, 255, and many others,
sometimes seems to set human ingenuity at defiance. It would of
course have been possible, by disentangling dove-tailed sentences
and by giving the approximate meaning where the literal was
impossible, to turn all this into fairly smooth English. But in
such a process all the strength and individual character of the
original would inevitably have been lost. What I have endeavoured
to do is to indicate the diction which a man of Wagner's peculiar
turn of mind would have used, if he had written in English
instead of in German.

To sum up, this translation of the correspondence is intended to
be an exact facsimile of the German original. To supply notes and
a serviceable index, to give a clue to the various persons who
are hidden under initials--all this must be left to another
occasion, provided always that the Wagner family consents to such
a course, and that the interest shown by English readers in the
work as it stands holds out sufficient inducement to so toilsome
a piece of work.

FRANCIS HUEFFER.



CORRESPONDENCE OF WAGNER AND LISZT, VOLUME 1 (OF A 2-VOLUME SET)



I.

DEAR SIR,

If I take the liberty to trouble you with these lines, I must in
the first instance rely solely on the great kindness with which
you received me during your last short stay in Paris in the late
autumn of last year, when Herr Schlesinger casually introduced me
to you. There is, however, still another circumstance which
encourages me to this step: My friend Heinrich Laube, the author,
wrote to me last summer from Carlsbad that he had there made the
acquaintance of one of your countrymen, who boasted of being your
friend; that he had spoken to that gentleman of me and my plans,
and engaged his interest in me to such an extent that he (the
gentleman) of his own accord promised to introduce me to YOU, as
he was on the point of starting for another watering-place, where
he would be sure to meet you.

You observe, dear sir, with what remote and uncertain
contingencies I am obliged to connect my great hope; you observe
how anxiously I cling to feeble possibilities to attain a
priceless boon. Was that promise ever fulfilled, and could it
have been? My eternally unlucky star almost forbids me to believe
it. The question, however, I owed to myself, and all I ask for at
present is the honour of a Yes or a No!

With full admiration, your most devoted

RICHARD WAGNER

25, RUE DU HELDER, PARIS, March 24th, 1841.



2.

DEAR SIR,

At last you are within safe reach of me, and I take this long-
desired opportunity to gain you, as far as is in my power, for
our scheme of celebrating Weber's memory by a worthy monument to
be erected in Dresden. You are just on the point of crowning your
important participation in the erection of the Beethoven
monument; you are for that purpose surrounded by the most
important musicians of our time, and in consequence are in the
very element most favourable to the enterprise which of late has
been resumed chiefly through my means. As no doubt you heard at
the time, we have transferred Weber's remains to the earth of his
German home. We have had a site for the intended monument
assigned to us close to our beautiful Dresden theatre, and a
commencement towards the necessary funds has been made by the
benefit performances at the Dresden, Berlin, and Munich theatres.
These funds, however, I need scarcely mention, have to be
increased considerably if something worthy is to be achieved, and
we must work with all our strength to rouse enthusiasm wherever
something may still be done. A good deal of this care I should
like to leave to you, not, you may believe me, from idleness, but
because I feel convinced that the voice of a poor German composer
of operas, compelled to devote his lifelong labour to the
spreading of his works a little beyond the limits of his
province, is much too feeble to be counted of importance for
anything in the world. Dear Herr Liszt, take it well to heart
when I ask you to relieve me of the load which would probably be
heaped on me by the reproach that I had compromised our dear
Weber's memory, because it was none other than I, weak and
unimportant as I am, who had first mooted this celebration. Pray,
do what you can in order to be helpful to our enterprise, for
gradually, as I observe the vulgar indifference of our theatres,
which owe so much to Weber, I begin to fear that our fund might
easily remain such as it is at present, and that would be
tantamount to our having to commence with very inadequate means
the erection of a monument which doubtless would have turned out
better if a more important personality had started the idea.

I add no more words, for to you I have probably said enough. The
committee of which I am a member will apply to you with proper
formality. Would that you could let us have a gratifying answer,
and that my application might have contributed a little towards
it!

With true esteem and devotion, I am yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

MARIENBAD, August 5th, 1845



3.

MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,

On and off I hear that you remember me very kindly and are intent
upon gaining friends for me; and I could have wished that, by
staying in Dresden a little longer, you had given me an
opportunity of thanking you personally and enjoying your company.
As I perceive more and more that I and my works, which as yet
have scarcely begun to spread abroad, are not likely to prosper
very much, I slowly familiarize myself with the thought of
turning to account your friendly feeling towards me a little,
and, much as I generally detest the seeking and making of
opportunities, I proceed with perfect openness to rouse you up in
my favour. There is at Vienna, where you happen to be staying, a
theatrical manager, P.; the man came to me a year ago, and
invited me to produce "Rienzi" at his theatre in the present
spring. Since then I have not been able to hear again from him,
but as our "Tichatschek" goes to his theatre in May for an
extensive starring engagement, and thereby the possibility of a
good representation of "Rienzi" would be given, the backing out
on the part of this P. begins to make me angry. I presume that
he, who is personally stupid, has been subsequently set against
my opera by his conductor, N. For this Capellmeister N. has
himself written an opera, which, because our King had heard it
and disliked it elsewhere, was not produced at Dresden, and the
wretched man probably thinks he owes me a grudge for it, although
I had no influence whatever in the matter. However trivial such
considerations may be in themselves, they and similar ones
largely furnish the real cause why works like mine occasionally
die in Germany; and as Vienna for pecuniary reasons, apart from
anything else, is of importance to me, I go straight to you, most
esteemed friend, to ask that you will set Manager P.'s head
right, in favour of an early performance of my "Rienzi" at his
theatre. Pray do not be angry with me.

I have ventured to send you through Meser the scores of my
"Rienzi" and "Tannhauser," and wish and hope that the latter will
please you better than the former.

Let me thank you sincerely for the great kindnesses you have
shown me. May your sentiments remain always the same towards

Your faithfully devoted

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, March 22nd, 1846



4.

DEAR FRIEND,

Herr Halbert tells me you want my overture to Goethe's "Faust."
As I know of no reason to withhold it from you except that it
does not please me any longer, I send it to you, because I think
that in this matter the only important question is whether the
overture pleases you. If the latter should be the case, dispose
of my work; only I should like occasionally to have the
manuscript back again.

You will now have to go through capellmeister agonies of the
first quality; so I can imagine, and my opera is just the kind of
thing for that to one who takes a loving interest in it. Learn to
know these sufferings; they are the daily bread I eat. May God
give you strength and joy in your hard work.

From my heart yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, January 30th, 1848



5.

MOST EXCELLENT FRIEND,

You told me lately that you had closed your piano for some time,
and I presume that for the present you have turned banker. I am
in a bad state, and like lightning the thought comes to me that
you might help me. The edition of my three operas has been
undertaken by myself; the capital I have borrowed in various
quarters; I have now received notice to repay all the money, and
I cannot hold out another week, for every attempt to sell my
copyrights, even for the bare outlay, has in these difficult
times proved unsuccessful. From several other causes the matter
begins to look very alarming to me, and I ask myself secretly
what is to become of me. The sum in question is 5,000 thalers;
after deducting the proceeds that have already come in and
without claim to royalties, this is the money that has been
invested in the publication of my operas. Can you get me such a
sum? Have you got it yourself, or has some one else who would pay
it for the love of you? Would it not be interesting if you were
to become the owner of the copyright of my operas? My friend
Meser would continue the business on your account as honestly as
he has done on mine; and a lawyer could easily put the thing in
order. And do you know what would be the result? I should once
more be a HUMAN BEING, a man for whom existence would be
possible, an artist who would never again in his life ask for a
shilling, and would only do his work bravely and gladly. Dear
Liszt, with this money you will buy me out of slavery! Do you
think I am worth that sum as a serf? Let that be known soon to

Your most devoted

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, June 23rd, 1848



6.

BEST OF FRIENDS,

Here am I fighting for death or life, and do not know what the
end will be. I have written to my lawyer to tell him of my last
hope: that by your energetic interference my affairs may possibly
be arranged. Your name will go far in the transaction, but your
person still farther; let me have the latter for a day, but very
soon. According to news which has reached me here, I shall next
Wednesday or Thursday have to undertake a journey which will keep
me away from Dresden for a fortnight. Performances of my operas I
cannot, for that and other reasons, offer you. Could you make up
your mind to come here very quickly even without the expectation
of one of my operas? If I offer you no performances, you shall,
on the other hand (that is my most ardent wish), possess all my
operas as your hereditary property. Do come! Your personality
will do much good, more than my personality will be able to do
all my life; for I cannot help myself.

Best greetings, excellent friend!

Wholly yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, July 1st, 1848



7.

MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,

Last night I wrote to Herr von Villen and asked him to talk over
and arrange with your lawyer and Herr Meser the affair of the
scores, and then to let me have a positive and precise answer. I
cannot possibly come to Dresden for the present. May God grant
that the state of your affairs turn out to be such as to enable
me to offer you my small and much-enfeebled services, being, as I
am,

Your sincere and devoted admirer and friend,

F. LISZT

WEYMAR, July 4th, 1848



8.

BEST OF FRIENDS,

Cordial greetings, and best thanks for the many and manifold
troubles you have taken on my behalf.

I had promised Princess Wittgenstein news as to the performance
of my "Tannhauser;" but I cannot for the present give you any
other than that the opera will not be performed either Sunday or
Monday, as I had promised, owing chiefly to the indisposition of
Tichatschek. Even if he were well, it could not take place, as we
have first of all to satisfy a "star," Formes. Probably
"Tannhauser" will not be possible till about a week later.

In any case I hope soon to see you again, and am glad
accordingly. May I ask you to remember me to the Princess?

I am wholly yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, September 6th, 1848



9.

MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,

Although I dare scarcely hope that you can act upon it, I hasten
to let you know that "Tannhauser" is announced for performance
here on Sunday next, September 24th.

On Friday, 22nd, there will be a jubilee concert of our orchestra
in celebration of its existence for three hundred years, and on
that occasion a piece of my latest opera, "Lohengrin," will,
amongst other things, be heard. According to a previous
arrangement, I consider it my duty to let you know this, and
should certainly be very glad to welcome you, and perhaps
Princess Wittgenstein (to whom please give my best compliments),
on these occasions, although I must fear that my news may come at
an inconvenient moment.

Yours with all my heart,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, September 19th, 1848



10.

MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,

Cordial greetings, and best thanks for the kind remembrance in
which you hold me. For a long time I have felt it my duty to
write to you. Lord knows why I have never done so. May it not be
too late even today.

Will you really in this evil time undergo the nuisance of
tackling my "Tannhauser"? Have you not yet lost your courage in
this arduous labour, which only in the luckiest case can be
grateful? "In the luckiest case," I say, for only if the actors,
especially of the principal parts, are equal to their most
difficult task, if the unaccustomed nature of that task does not
frighten them and cripple their good intentions, only then the
lucky case can happen of the performance being comprehensible and
effective. If one circumstance gives me hope of success, it is
that you have undertaken the task. You can do many, many things;
of that I am persuaded.

I am very glad you are settled in Weimar, and I hope that not
only Weimar, but you, will profit by it. At least, we shall
remain near each other.

I live in a very humbled condition and without much hope. I
depend on the goodwill of certain people. Every thought of
enjoying life I have abandoned, but--let me tell you this for
your comfort--I am alive in spite of it all, and do not mean to
let any one kill me so easily.

Remember me kindly to Herr von Zigesar, who has written to me
very courteously. The points mentioned in his letter have, I
hope, been settled verbally by Herr Genast, especially that about
the honorarium, which I am willing to give up altogether. Please
remember me also to Herr Genast, and let me soon have some news
of you.

I remain in cordial devotion yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, January 14th, 1849



11.

(TO HERR VON ZIGESAR)

HIGHLY ESTEEMED SIR,

Accept my most hearty thanks for your kind letter, which has
given me much joy. I confess that I scarcely thought this the
time to gain sympathy for my works, less on account of the
present political commotion, than because of the absence of all
real earnestness, which has long ago disappeared from the public
interest in the theatre, giving way to the most shallow desire
for entertainment. You yourself are anxious about the reception
of my opera at the hands of the Weimar public, but as at the same
time you evince your sympathy for that work so cordially, you
will, I may hope, agree with me when I openly charge your
excellent predecessors with the responsibility for your being
obliged to suspect the public of an ill-regulated and shallow
taste. For as we educate a child, so he grows up, and a
theatrical audience is equally subject to the effects of
training. But I am unjust in accusing Weimar of a fault which
during the last generation has invaded all the theatres in the
world, the more so as I lay myself open to the suspicion of doing
so in the self-conceited interest of a work which perhaps for
different reasons, derivable from intrinsic faults, may be
exposed to the displeasure of the public. However that may be,
your care for my work is in the circumstances all the more
gratifying and meritorious, and I offer you my most cordial
thanks. The pleasure of a visit to you at Weimar I am compelled,
for reasons connected with my local affairs, to leave to another
time. That the performance of my opera would not answer my
expectations is the least thing I fear; for from firm conviction
I have the most favourable opinion of what diligence and good-
will can do, while I know, on the other hand, how little without
these two the amplest resources can achieve for true art. As I
can be certain of these chief requirements at your theatre, I
feel justified in offering to you, all others concerned, and
especially my friend Liszt, my best thanks in advance; and no
excessive anxiety shall trouble me. I sincerely wish that the
exalted lady whose birthday is to be celebrated will think the
success of your labour worthy of acknowledgment.

With much esteem, I have the honour to remain

Yours most sincerely,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, February 8th, 1849



12.

MUCH-ESTEEMED FRIEND,

Herr von Zigesar has lately written to you to say with how much
zeal and with what ever-increasing admiration and sympathy we are
studying your "Tannhauser." If you could make it possible to come
over for the last rehearsal on the 15th and attend the
performance on the 16th, we should all be truly delighted. Let me
know the day before, because of engaging a room, etc.

Cordial thanks for sending me the "Faust" overture.

Hoping to see you soon,

Your sincerely devoted

F. LISZT

February 9th, 1849



13.

DEAR FRIEND LISZT,

From all I hear you have recently added to the unequalled
successes of your former life and artistic activity a new one,
which probably is not inferior to the foremost of its
predecessors, and in many respects perhaps surpasses them all. Do
you suppose I cannot judge of this from a distance? Hear if I
can.

No theatre in the world has so far thought it advisable to
perform my opera "Tannhauser" four years after its production; it
was left to you to settle down for a time from your world-wide
travels at a small court theatre, and at once to set to work so
that your much-tried friend might at last get on a little. You
did not talk or fuss; you yourself undertook the unaccustomed
task of teaching my work to the people. Be sure that no one knows
as well as I what it means to bring such a work to light in
existing circumstances. Who the deuce does not conduct operatic
rehearsals nowadays? You were intent not only upon giving the
opera, but upon making it understood and received with applause.
That meant to throw yourself into the work body and soul, to
sacrifice body and soul, to press and exert every fibre of the
body, every faculty of the soul, towards the one aim of not only
producing your friend's work, but of producing it splendidly and
to his advantage. You had to be sure that it would succeed, for
only with a view to success had you begun the work; and therein
lies the force of your character and of your ability--you have
succeeded. If I have judged your beautiful action rightly, if I
have understood you, I hope you will understand me too when, in
words as brief and precise as was your action, I say to you,

I THANK you, dear friend!

You, however, wished not only to benefit my work, but to benefit
me as well; you know that my position is that of a somewhat
hemmed-in, forsaken, solitary man. You desired to make friends
for me, and had a sufficiently good opinion of my work to think
that the spreading of it abroad would gain friends for me. Dear
friend, by that very means you have at this moment lifted me up
as by a charm. It is not to complain, but merely to convince you
of the force of that impression, when I tell you that just now,
in the very week when you gave my "Tannhauser" at Weimar, our
manager insulted me in so gross a manner that for several days I
was discussing with myself whether I should bear any longer to be
exposed to such infamous treatment for the bite of bread that my
service here gives me to eat, and whether I should not rather
throw up art and earn my bread as a labourer, to be at least free
from the despotism of malignant ignorance. Thank God! The news
from Weimar and Tichatschek's greetings and accounts have again
strengthened me. I once more have courage to suffer.

This also I owe to you!

D.V.--I shall soon see you again, dear, worthy, helpful friend.
Last week it was impossible to ask my tormentor for a short leave
of absence; otherwise I should have liked to come, if only to
spend a few cheerful and animated hours with you and to tell you
the delight I feel in you. In the meantime be satisfied with
this. It comes from my fullest heart, and tears are in my eyes.

From Herren von Zigesar, Biedenfeld, and Genast I simultaneously
received letters of joyfullest and friendliest import; I answer
them all at once by making you my interpreter, and through you
greet those gentlemen with all my heart. Hold me dear as before.
I give to you in return what is in me, and what therefore I call
my own.

God bless you, dear Liszt.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, February 20th, 1849



14.

DEAREST FRIEND,

So much do I owe to your bold and high genius, to the fiery and
magnificent pages of your "Tannhauser," that I feel quite awkward
in accepting the gratitude you are good enough to express with
regard to the two performances I had the honour and happiness to
conduct. However that may be, your letter has given me the
liveliest pleasure of friendship. I thank you with all my heart
for the thanks you proffer me. Once for all, number me in future
amongst your most zealous and devoted admirers; far or near,
count on me and dispose of me.

Herren Zigesar, Genast, and Biedenfeld have described to you in
detail the impression which your masterpiece has made on our
public. In the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung you will find a few
lines I have sent to Brockhaus by his demand. Biedenfeld has put
the little article into shape. I shall send you by post the
article that appeared in our Gemeindeblatt, where is also printed
the prologue of Schober, who had the sense to turn "Tannhauser"
to good account. Talking of people with good sense, do you know
what I mean to do? No more nor less than to appropriate for the
piano, after my fashion, the overture of "Tannhauser and" the
whole scene "O du mein holder Abendstern" of the third act. As to
the former, I believe that it will meet with few executants
capable of mastering its technical difficulties, but the scene of
the "Abendstern" should be within easy reach of second-class
pianists.

If you will propose to Meser to have it engraved, or if you will
allow me to dispose of it for the benefit of H. or Sch., I should
like to have it published soon. Perhaps, if you have no
objection, I should dispose of it in favour of an album for which
my assistance has been asked for the last two months--the album
published by the "Ladies' Society for the German Fleet." In vain
I told them that I suffered from a drought of both manuscripts
and ideas; they would not leave me alone; and I have just
received another letter from a nice lady, who gives it me nicely.

Write to me as to the destination you prefer for your
"Abendstern;" and when we meet, I shall have the impertinence to
play you with my two hands your overture, such as I have prepared
it for my particular use.

Remember me very affectionately to Tichatschek; he has been an
admirable artist and a charming comrade and friend. It will be a
true pleasure to me to see him here again in the month of May,
according to his promise. If you could on the same occasion
dispose of a few days, we should be only too happy to see you. In
the meantime, dearest friend, believe me from my heart and soul
your devoted admirer and friend,

FR. LISZT

February 26th, 1849

P.S.--A very beautiful and accomplished hand wishes to add a few
lines to this letter; if you have found if tedious to read me,
you could have no better compensation.



15.

Allow me, dear sir, to add another voice to the chorus of
admiration which sings "Gloria" to the author of the double poem
of "Tannhauser." If others have more right than I to speak to you
of the sublime artistic expression which you have given to such
deep emotions, I yet venture to tell you how souls lost in the
crowd who chant to themselves your "Sangerkrieg" are penetrated
by your harmonies, which contain all the fine and delicate shades
of idea, sentiment, and passion.

We had hoped to see you for a moment at Weimar, and I clung to
that hope all the more as I wanted to express to you my thanks
for the kindness you showed me during my stay at Dresden. Let me
add to these the other thanks which I owe you for the wonderful
moments during which I listened to your melodies, expressive of
the fascinating charms of the sirens who dwell on the banks of
our imagination, and of those piercing cries wrung from us by the
extinction of the perfumes of their enchanted home,--for those
thoughts which elevate us in their humility, that despair which
throws us "without fear against swords, when the soul is pierced
by a very different sword of grief," those elegies which one
whispers only to the evening star, those prayers which bear away
the soul on their wings.

Grant, sir, that the thoughts which so much passion and beauty
awake in hearts knowing what strange secrets lie hidden in
passion, and adoring splendour and beauty, may reach you and tell
you how deep is the admiration which this master work will excite
at all times and everywhere in those who have once visited these
resplendent and dolorous regions of the soul.

Believe, above all, in the admiration which has been given to you
here, and which we should be so happy to express to you
personally. I am amongst those most desirous of seeing you, sir,
and of repeating from mouth to mouth the expression of the
admiring and devoted sentiments of which I ask you to be a
thousand times assured.

CAROLYNE WITTGENSTEIN

February 25th, 1849



16.

DEAREST FRIEND,

A thousand thanks for your letter! We are going on nicely
together. If the world belonged to us, I believe we should do
something to give pleasure to the people living therein. I hope
we two at least shall agree with each other; let those who will
not go with us remain behind,--and thus be our alliance sealed!

What shall I do with the beautiful letter I received together
with your own? Have I really so pleased your esteemed friend with
my feeble work that she thought it worth while to give me such
great and unexpected joy in return? She indeed has fully effected
her purpose, but I can scarcely credit that my work alone should
have produced a similar impression upon the spirituelle Princess;
and I am probably right in surmising that here also my friend
Liszt has wooed for me with his wondrous fire. However that may
be, I feel too silly today to thank your esteemed friend
otherwise than through your medium, through your mouth, and
therefore I pray you with all my power to express my gratitude to
her as fervently, as joyfully, as you are able. Will you grant me
this favour?

Before I knew anything about your intention, several years ago,
when I was writing the overture, I wondered whether I should ever
hear it played by you. I should never have mentioned it to you,
for in such matters one must not be too forward, but now that I
hear you are employed in making this piece your own, after your
own fashion, I must tell you that I feel as if a wonderful dream
were realized. Is it possible? Why not? All is possible to you.
About the "Abendstern," dear friend, do exactly as you like. I
have spoken to Meser about it, and he will write to you at once
to place himself at your disposal; but if you prefer another way
of publication, do exactly as you like. In any case I feel highly
flattered by your proposal.

Today I read the account of my opera in the Deutsche Allgemeine
Zeitung of which you speak; by its tenor Herr von Biedenfeld has
once more obliged me very, very much; express to him my best
thanks, dearest friend! I must also beg to convey my great and
deeply felt gratitude to the artists who have deserved well of me
by their successful zeal. To how many and how deeply have I
reason to be grateful! I am looking forward to May, when I shall
be with you in any case; I will then speak from my full heart as
loudly as my breast will let me. Till May, then!

God bless you, dearest, best, of friends! Best remembrances to
Zigesar and Genast. I throw myself at the feet of the Princess.

For ever your most grateful

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, March lst, 1849



17.

(TO HERR O. L. B. WOLFF)

DEAREST FRIEND,

It was impossible for me to write to you from Rorschach (where I
arrived only yesterday) and to return your passport. Half an hour
after the arrival of the steamer the express coach started for
Zurich; and I felt bound to take advantage of it, as I had made
up my mind to cut this journey as short as possible by avoiding
unnecessary delay. Unfortunately I got on but slowly. From Coburg
I could not start for Lichtenfels till early on Saturday, but
fortunately I got through everywhere without notice, at Lindau
only, where I arrived at midnight, they asked for my passport at
the gate. The next morning I received it back without difficulty,
but unfortunately it had on it a vise for Switzerland, adorned
with which I am compelled to return it to Dr. Widmann. I hope
that his political experience will understand this addition to
his passport.

Luckily then I am in Switzerland. To your counsel and your active
aid, dear friends, I owe my safety. The four days' journey in a
frightful heat had, however, brought my blood to such a state of
excitement, that I found it impossible to go on without risking a
stroke of apoplexy. Moreover, I hope to employ my stay at Zurich
in obtaining a passport for France. One of my early friends has
been residing here for a long time; today I expect him back from
a pleasure trip, and I hope he will do what is necessary to save
me the long detour by Geneva.

To my wife I write at length, and my request to you to
communicate this news to my friends is therefore for the present
limited to our Liszt. Greet my preserver and sovereign liege many
thousand times, and assure him of my firm resolution to do all
that is in my power to please him. The journey has freshened and
roused my artistic courage, and I have quite made up my mind as
to what I have to accomplish in Paris. I do not think much of
fate, but I feel that my late adventures have thrown me into a
path where I must do the most important and significant things
which my nature can produce. Even four weeks ago I had no idea of
that which now I recognize to be my highest task; my deep-rooted
friendship for Liszt supplies me with strength from within and
without to perform that task; it is to be our common work. More
of this soon!

Liszt will shortly receive a parcel of scores, etc., from my
wife; let him open it. The score of "Lohengrin" I want him to try
at some leisure; it is my last and ripest work. As yet I have not
shown it to any artist, and therefore have not been able to learn
from any one what impression it produces. How curious I am to
hear Liszt about it! As soon as he has finished looking through
it, I want him to forward it at once to Paris, along with the
other scores and books of words. Perhaps some acquaintance going
to Paris will take them. The copy of the score of the "Flying
Dutchman" is meant for the Weimar theatre; this and the book of
words let Liszt therefore take from the parcel and keep back.

That wonderful man must also look after my poor wife. I am
particularly anxious to get her out of Saxony, and especially out
of that d----d Dresden. Therefore I have hit upon the idea of
finding for her and her family a modest but cheerful refuge
somewhere in the Weimar territory, perhaps on one of the grand-
ducal estates, where, with the remainder of what is saved of our
goods and chattels, she might prepare a new home for herself, and
perhaps for me also--in the future. May my friend succeed in
this!

Thanks, cordial thanks, to you for the great kindness you have
shown to me! My memorials of it are so numerous that I cannot put
my hand in my pocket without being reminded of the thoughtfulness
and sympathy of friend Wolff. May my future be your reward!

Cordial greetings to Dr. Widmann, as whose double I have acted
for four days; I return him to himself in his integrity, which I
hope will not a little conduce to his perfect well-being. Best
thanks to him!

And thanks, thanks also, to your dear wife and mother! The
blessings of one saved are with them. Farewell, dear friend!

You will soon hear more from your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, March 20th, 1849



18.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

To you [In this and all the subsequent letters the familiar "Du"
("Thou") instead of the formal "Sie" ("You") is adopted.-TR.] I
must turn if my heart is once more to open itself, and I am in
need of such heart-comfortings; that I cannot deny. Like a
spoiled child of my homeland, I exclaim, "Were I only home again
in a little house by the wood and might leave the devil to look
after his great world, which at the best I should not even care
to conquer, because its possession would be even more loathsome
than is its mere aspect!"

Your friendship--if you could understand what it is to me! My
only longing is to live with my wife always near you. Not Paris
nor London--you alone would be able to hammer out what good there
may be in me, for you fire me to the best efforts.

From Zurich you had news of me through Wolff. Switzerland did me
good, and there I found an old friend of my youth, to whom I
could talk much about you. It was Alexander Mueller, whom you too
know, a worthy and amiable man and artist. At Zurich also I read
your article on "Tannhauser" in the Journal des Debats. What have
you done in it? You wished to describe my opera to the people,
and instead of that you have yourself produced a true work of
art. Just as you conducted the opera, so have you written about
it: new, all new, and from your inner self. When I put the
article down, my first thoughts were these: "This wonderful man
can do or undertake nothing without producing his own self from
his inner fullness he can never be merely reproductive; no other
action than the purely productive is possible to him; all in him
tends to absolute, pure production, and yet he has never yet
concentrated his whole power of will on the production of a great
work. Is he, with all his individuality, too little of an egoist?
Is he too full of love, and does he resemble Jesus on the Cross,
Who helps every one but Himself? "

Ah, dear friend, my thoughts of you and my love of you are still
too enthusiastic; I can only exclaim and rejoice when I think of
you. Soon I hope to grow stronger, so that my selfish enthusiasm
may allow me to give utterance to my anxiety for you. May Heaven
grant me the power to do full justice to the love I have for you;
as yet I live too much on your love for me, and mine vents itself
in useless exclamations. I hope soon to gather the necessary
strength from the intercourse with those who love you as I do;
and truly you have friends!

I arrived in Paris soon after the publication of your article. We
know better than any one that this was an accident, of which you
had not in the least thought when you wrote and dispatched the
article. But this accident has at once given a distinct colour to
my position in Paris, and--our friend M. considers that colour as
black as possible. Dear Liszt, you ought to clear your mind as to
this man. But why do I talk? Should not you have found out long
ago that natures like that of M. are strictly opposed to yours
and mine? Should not you have found out long ago that the only
tie possible between you and M. was effected by magnanimity on
your side and by prudence on his? Where the two threads of this
woof met, there deception was possible for a time, but I believe
that you gave way to that magnanimous deception with amiable
intent. M. is thoroughly little, and unfortunately I do not meet
a man who has the slightest doubt about it.

Honestly speaking, I am unable to engage in a drama of intrigue a
la Verre d'Eau; if this were the only way open to me, I should
pack my bundle tomorrow and settle down in a German village; work
I will as much as I can, but to sell my ware in this market is
impossible to me. Artistic affairs here are in so vile a
condition, so rotten, so fit for decay, that only a bold
scytheman is required who understands the right cut. Dearest
friend, apart from all political speculation, I am compelled to
say openly that in the soil of the anti-Revolution no art can
grow, neither perhaps could it for the present in the soil of the
Revolution, unless care were taken--in time. To speak briefly,
tomorrow I shall begin a searching article on the theatre of the
future for some important, political journal. I promise you to
leave politics on one side as much as possible, and therefore
shall not compromise you or any one else; but as far as art and
the theatre are concerned you must, with a good grace, allow me
to be as red as possible, for a very determined colour is the
only one of use to us. This, I think, is my most prudent course
to adopt, and he who advises it for prudential reasons as the
most effective one is none other than your representative
Belloni. He tells me that here I want money as much as M. or
really more than M., or else I must make myself feared. Well,
money I have not, but a tremendous desire to practice a little
artistic terrorism. Give me your blessing, or, better still, give
me your assistance. Come here and lead the great hunt; we will
shoot, and the hares shall fall right and left.

I do not expect to reach the goal here so very soon but must
prepare myself. A libretto of Scribe or Dumas I cannot set to
music. If I ever do reach the right goal in this Parisian hunt, I
shall not compass it in the common way; I must in that case
create something new, and that I can achieve only by doing it all
myself. I am on the look-out for a young French poet sufficiently
congenial to give himself up to my idea. My subject I shall
arrange myself, and he must then write his French verses as
spontaneously as possible; to anything else I could not agree.

During these slow preparations I shall have to occupy my leisure
with London; I am ready to go there as soon as possible to do all
in my power for the performance of my works. As to this I expect
your friendly command.

I thank you from all my heart for Belloni; he is an able, honest,
and very active man; every day he calls for me to show me the
proper way to Parisian glory.

This is the cheerful part of my news; otherwise this horrible
Paris presses on me with a hundredweight. Often I bleat like a
calf for its stable and for the udder of its life-giving mother.
How lonely I am amongst these people! My poor wife! I have had no
news as yet, and I feel deathly soft and flabby at every
remembrance. Let me soon have good news of my wife! With all my
courage, I am often the most miserable coward. In spite of your
generous offers, I frequently consider with a deadly terror the
shrinking of my cash after my doubly prolonged journey to Paris.
I feel again as I did when I came here ten years ago, and when
thievish longings would often get hold of me on watching the dawn
of the hot days that were to shine on my empty stomach. Ah, how
this vulgarest of cares degrades man!

But one piece of news will rouse everything in me again,
especially if the little Weimar has remained faithful to me. One
single piece of good news, and I float once more on the top of
the ocean waves.

My dear, glorious friend, take me such as this abominableParis
has excited me today. I do not thank you; I call you blessed.
Greet the dear Princess, greet the small knot of my friends, and
tell them that you hope I shall do well. Soon you will hear more
of me. Be happy and remember me.

Yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

PARIS, June 5th, 1849

(Have you received the scores, and shall I see some of them here
by-and-bye?)

I have been with your mother, and she has given me uncommon
pleasure; she is a healthy woman! I shall call on her again. She
sends you best greetings.



19.

DEAREST FRIEND,

It is nearly four weeks since my wife left me, and I have not yet
had the least news of her. My grief and depression are great. I
must gain another home and hearth; otherwise all is over with me.
My heart is greater than my sense. With Belloni I have been in
close consultation, and we have formed the following opinion and
the resolution derived therefrom:--

In Paris I can do no good at present; my business is to write an
opera for Paris; for anything else I am unfit. This object cannot
be attained by storm; in the most favourable case I shall achieve
the poem in half a year, and the performance in a year and a
half. In Paris without a home, or--which is the same--peace of
heart, I can do no work; I must find a new place where I am at
home and can make up my mind to remain at home. For such a place
I have selected Zurich. I have written to my wife to come there
with her youngest sister, with the remnants of our household
goods, so as once more to be united to me. I have a friend there,
Alexander Mueller, who will assist me in furnishing as cheap a
home as is to be had. As soon as I can, I shall go there from
this place. When I have my wife again, I shall forthwith and
gladly set to work. The sketch of a subject for Paris I shall
send from there to Belloni, who will arrange about a French
version by Gustave Vaez. In October he may have finished his
work, and then I shall for a short time leave my wife for Paris,
and shall try every possible means to obtain a commission for the
setting of the said subject. I may perhaps on the same occasion
perform some of my music, and after that shall return to Zurich
to set about the composition. Meanwhile I shall employ my time in
setting to music my latest German drama, "The Death of
Siegfried." Within half a year I shall send you the opera
completed.

I must commence some genuine work, or else perish; but in order
to work I want quiet and a home. With my wife and in pleasant
Zurich I shall find both. I have one thing in view, and one thing
I shall always do with joy and pleasure--work, i.e., write
operas. For anything else I am unfit; play a part or occupy a
position I cannot, and I should deceive those whom I promised to
undertake any other task.

You friends must get me some small yearly allowance, just
sufficient to secure for me and my wife a quiet existence in
Zurich, as for the present I am not allowed to be near you in
Germany. I talked to you in Weimar of a salary of three hundred
thalers which I should wish to ask of the Grand Duchess for my
operas, alterations of the same, and the like. If perhaps the
Duke of Coburg and possibly even the Princess of Prussia were to
add something, I would willingly surrender my whole artistic
activity to these three protectors as a kind of equivalent, and
they would have the satisfaction of having kept me free and ready
for my art. I cannot ask for myself nor find the proper form for
the necessary agreement, but you can, and you and your
intercession will succeed. Possible revenues from the opera I
shall write for Paris I might then entirely devote to the payment
of the debts I left in Dresden.

Dear Liszt, have I spoken plainly enough?

With the confidence of one entirely helpless, I further ask, Make
it possible to let me have some money soon, so that I may leave
here, go to Zurich, and exist there till I receive the desired
salary. You are the best judge as to what I want for this.
Whether my wife when, in accordance with my ardent prayer, she
thinks of starting for Zurich, will be able to raise the
necessary funds, I unfortunately cannot tell. Would you kindly
ask her soon whether she wants anything? Write to her care of
Eduard Avenarius, Marienstrasse, Leipzig.

Goodness, how I always try not to weep! My poor wife!

The best I can bring forth, I will bring forth,--all, all! But to
battle about in this great world is impossible for me. Let me
once more be at home somewhere!

I was unable to write more today; do not be angry on that
account. But I know your kindness, and trust in it implicitly.

Take a thousand greetings from your

RICHARD WAGNER

(The scores my wife could bring to me at Zurich, could she not?)

(I had hoped to get some money from Berlin through Tichatschek;
unfortunately nothing has arrived, and I cannot in any way
relieve you, although I do not know where you are to get the
money.)



20.

DEAR FRIEND,

Excuse me for applying to you again so soon. At last I received a
letter from my wife, and many pangs of conscience were again
roused by it. More than all, it lies heavy on my heart today that
I have asked you to intercede with several royal personages for a
salary for me. I had forgotten--to say nothing of my immediate
past--that my sufficiently public participation in the Dresden
rising has placed me towards those royal personages in a position
which must make them think of me as one opposed to them on
principle, and this perhaps will make it appear strange that now,
when the collapse of that rising has reduced me to poverty, I
turn for help to them of all others. My position is all the more
painful because I can take no steps to free myself from the
suspicion of such sentiments without incurring the worse
suspicion of meanness and cowardice. You personally I may assure
that the feeling manifested by my undisguised sympathy with the
Dresden rising was very far from the ridiculously fanatical
notion that every prince is an object of active hatred. If I
concurred in this strange fanaticism, I should naturally have had
scruples in approaching the Grand Duchess at Weimar with perfect
openness. Before you, I trust, I need not defend myself; you know
the bitter source of my discontent, which sprang from the
condition of my beloved art, which I nourished with passion, and
which finally I transferred to every other field, the connection
of which with the ground of my deep dissatisfaction I had to
acknowledge. From this feeling came the violent longing which
finds its expression in the words, "There must be a change; thus
it cannot remain." That now, taught by the experience of my
participation in that rising, I could never again mix myself up
with a political catastrophe, I need not say; every reasonable
person must know it. What rejoices me, and what I may safely
affirm, is that in all my aims I have once more become entirely
an artist. But this I cannot possibly tell the princes at the
moment when I am about to claim their assistance. What would they
think of me! A general and public declaration also would bring me
nothing but disgrace. It would have to appear as an apology, and
an apology in the only correct sense time and my life alone can
tender, not a public declaration, which in the present
threatening circumstances and in my helplessness must needs
appear cowardly and low.

I am sure you will agree with my view of the matter, and I
surmise that already you have found yourself in a very awkward
position towards the Grand Duchess on my account. My wife, who
still thinks it necessary to live on amongst the dregs of Dresden
vulgarity, tells me a thousand unpleasant things which in the
eyes of miserable creatures make me appear much more compromised
by the revolution than I really am. This feeling towards me is
probably spread far and wide, and therefore may have affected the
Weimar court. I can well imagine that you think it at present
inadvisable to raise your voice for me at a court which, with a
natural prejudice, at first sight recognizes in me only the
political revolutionary, and forgets the artistic revolutionary
whom at bottom it has learnt to love.

How far you will think it good to comply with my application of
yesterday in such circumstances you will best decide for
yourself. Is it possible that our princes nowadays should be
magnanimous enough to exercise a beautiful, old privilege,
unmoved by the currents of the time and without weighing
conditions? Think this over; perhaps you have more confidence
than I.

My wife suffers, and is embittered; for her I hope everything
from time. I asked you yesterday to inquire of her as to the
pecuniary aid she may need; I ask you today not to do so-not now.
If you will do me a kindness, send me a little money, so that I
can get away,--anywhere, perhaps after all to Zurich, to my old
friend Mueller. I should like to be at rest, so as to write the
scenario for Paris; I don't feel up to much just now. What should
I do in London? I am good for nothing, except perhaps writing
operas, and that I cannot do in London.

Best greetings to any one who will accept them from me; there
will not be many. Farewell, dear, much-troubled friend. Could I
but make you returns!

Your most faithful

RICHARD WAGNER

REUIL, June 19th, 1849



21.

DEAR FRIEND,

With the contents of your letter No. 2 I agree more than with No.
1. For the present it would not be very diplomatic to knock at
battered doors. Later on, when you stand revealed as a made
fellow, even as you are a created one, protectors will easily be
found; and if I can serve you then as a connecting and convenient
instrument, I shall be quite at your disposal with my whole heart
and with a certain slight savoir-faire. But a period of
transition you cannot avoid, and Paris is for everything and
before everything a necessity to you. Try to make it possible
that your "Rienzi" (with a few modifications intended for the
Paris public) is performed in the course of next winter. Pay a
little court to Roger and Madame Viardot. Roger is an amiably
intelligent man, who will probably fall in love with the part. I
think, however, that in any case you will have to spare him a
little more than Tichatschek, and will have to ease his task by
some abbreviations. Also do not neglect Janin, who, I feel sure,
will give you a helping hand, and whose influence in the press
can secure the early performance of the opera.

In a word, very dear and very great friend, make yourself
possible in possible conditions, and success will assuredly not
fail you. Vaez and A. Royer will be of great assistance to you
both for the translation and rearrangement of "Rienzi" and for
the design of your new work. Associate and concur with them
strictly for the realization of that plan from which you must not
swerve:--

1. To give "Rienzi" during the winter of 1850 at the Paris Opera,
whence it will take its flight to all the theatres of Germany,
and perhaps of Italy. For Europe wants an opera which for our new
revolutionary epoch will be what "La Muette de Portici" was for
the July revolution, and "Rienzi" is conceived and written for
those conditions. If you succeed in introducing into it a slight
element of relief, were it only by means of stage machinery or of
the ballet, success is certain.

2. To write a new work for the winter of '51 in collaboration
with Vaez and A. Royer, who know all the mysteries of success. In
the interval you cannot do better than take a good position in
the musical press. Forgive me for this suggestion, and manage so
that you are not of necessity placed in a hostile position
towards things and people likely to bar your road to success and
fame. A truce to political commonplaces, socialistic stuff, and
personal hatreds! On the other hand, good courage, strong
patience, and flaming fire, which latter it will not be difficult
for you to provide, with the volcanoes you have in your brain!
Your idea of retiring to Zurich for some time in order to work
more at ease seems good, and I have charged Belloni to remit to
you three hundred francs for traveling expenses. I hope that
Madame Wagner will be able to join you, and before the autumn I
shall let you have a small sum which will keep you afloat.

Kindly let me know whether I shall send your works to Madame
Wagner, and at what address.

The admirable score of "Lohengrin" has interested me profoundly;
nevertheless I fear at the performance the superideal colour
which you have maintained throughout. Perhaps you will think me
an awful Philistine, dear friend, but I cannot help it, and my
sincere friendship for you may authorize me to tell you. . . .
[The letter breaks off here in the original edition.-TR.]



22.

DEAR FRIEND,

Thanks to your intercession, I have been able to fly to the
friendly place from which I write to you today. I should trouble
you unnecessarily were I to tell you all that latterly has passed
through my heart; perhaps you will guess it. Belloni has taken
care of me with the greatest kindness and consideration; there
are, however, things in which no friend in the world can be of
assistance. One thing more by way of explanation: during my
journey through Switzerland and on my arrival in Paris, I met
with some Saxon refugees in a position which induced me to assist
them in your name. I shall not be tempted again.

I hope to find some rest and collectedness for the completion of
my intended Paris work in the intimate intercourse with a dear
friend who is also a friend of yours--Alexander Mueller. About
"Rienzi" and the plans which you have commended to us regarding
that opera, Belloni will give you details in so far as the purely
practical part of the matter is concerned. He thinks it
impossible, especially at first, to place it at the Grand Opera.
I, as an artist and man, have not the heart for the
reconstruction of that to my taste superannuated work, which, in
consequence of its immoderate dimensions, I have had to remodel
more than once. I have no longer the heart for it, and desire
from all my soul soon to do something new instead. Besides, the
erection of an operatic theatre in Paris is imminent where only
foreign works are to be produced; that would be the place for
Rienzi, especially if some one else would occupy himself with it.
I want you to decide about this as soon as you have heard our
reasons. I have settled everything with Gustave Vaez as regards
the external part of our common enterprise. The work, which I
shall now take in hand at once, will, I hope, soon open to him
and to you my inner view of the matter. Heaven grant that in this
also we may understand each other or at least come to an
understanding. Only from the one deep conviction which is the
essence of my mental being can I draw inspiration and courage for
my art, for only through this conviction can I love it; if this
conviction were to separate me from my friends, I should bid
farewell to art--and probably turn clodhopper.

By all accounts I am in fine repute with you! The other day, I
hear, I was accused, together with another person, of having set
fire to the old Dresden opera house. All right. My dear wife
lives in the midst of this slough of civic excellence and
magnanimity. One thing grieves me deeply; it wounds me to the
very bone: I mean the reproach frequently made to me that I have
been ungrateful to the King of Saxony. I am wholly made of
sentiment, and could never understand, in the face of such a
reproach, why I felt no pangs of conscience at this supposed
ingratitude. I have at last asked myself whether the King of
Saxony has committed a punishable wrong by conferring upon me
undeserved favours, in which case I should certainly have owed
him gratitude for his infringement of justice. Fortunately my
consciousness acquits him of any such guilt. The payment of 1,500
thalers for my conducting, at his intendant's command, a certain
number of bad operas every year, was indeed excessive; but this
was to me no reason for gratitude, but rather for dissatisfaction
with my appointment. That he paid me nothing for the best I could
do does not oblige me to gratitude; that when he had an
opportunity of helping me thoroughly he could not or dared not
help me, but calmly discussed my dismissal with his intendant,
quieted me as to the dependence of my position on any act of
grace. Finally, I am conscious that, even if there had been cause
for any particular gratitude towards the King of Saxony, I have
not knowingly done anything ungrateful towards him; proof of this
I should be able to furnish. Pardon, dear friend, this unpleasant
deviation; unfortunately I am not yet again in that stage of
creating which shuts out anything but the present and the future
from my cognizance. My spirit still writhes too violently under
the impression of a past which, alas! continues wholly to occupy
my present. I am still bent on justification, and that I wish to
address to no one but you.

As soon as I have anything ready I shall send it to you. For the
present I must urgently ask you to forward me here at once the
scores and other literary tools which my wife has sent to you. I
want to get into some kind of swing again so that the bell may
ring. Be good enough to give the parcel to a carrier to be
forwarded here by express conveyance (care of Alexander Muller,
Zurich).

Muller greets you most cordially. He will write to you soon to
inform you of the success of Herr Eck, the instrument-maker,
whose company is doing very well.

Dear Liszt, do not cease to be my friend; have patience with me,
and take me as I am. A thousand compliments to the Princess, and
thank her in my name for the kind memory she has preserved of me;
she may find it difficult to remain my friend.

Be healthy and happy, and let me soon hear some of your works,
even as I promise you on my part. Farewell, and take my cordial
thanks for your constancy and friendship.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, July 9th, 1849



23.

MY DEAR LISZT,

Are you in a good temper? Probably not, as you are just opening a
letter from your plaguing spirit. And yet it is all the world to
me that you should be in a good temper just today, at this
moment! Fancy yourself at the most beautiful moment of your life,
and thence look upon me cheerfully and benevolently, for I have
to proffer an ardent prayer. I receive today a letter from my
wife, unfortunately much delayed in the post. It touches me more
than anything in the world; she wants to come to me, and stay
with me, and suffer with me once more all the ills of life. Of a
return to Germany, as you know well yourself, I must not for the
present think; therefore our reunion must take place abroad. I
had already told her that the hoped-for assistance from Weimar
would come to nothing; this she will easily understand and bear.
But in order to carry out her idea to come to me, she and I lack
no less than all. To get away from Dresden in the most difficult
circumstances she wants money; quite lately she told me she had
to pay sixty-two thalers without knowing where to get it. She
will now have to pack and send to me the few things we have
saved; she must leave something for the immediate wants of her
parents, whom formerly I kept entirely. She then has to travel to
Zurich with her sister, and I must at least be able to offer her
the bare necessaries of life for the beginning. At this moment I
can offer her nothing in the world. I live at present only on the
remainder of the money which I received from you through Belloni
before my departure from Paris. But, dear friend, I take care not
to be a burden to you alone, and this care is partly the reason
why I have not yet thoroughly set to work, although the anxiety
about my wife is chiefly to blame. I have again tried hard to get
paying work and assistance, so that I might ease your burden, and
in the worst case need only ask you to assist me again for my
journey to Paris in the autumn. But now in this moment of the
most painful joy at the imminent return of my wife--now I know of
no one but you to whom to apply with the firm hope of seeing my
wishes speedily accomplished. You therefore I implore by all that
is dear to you to raise and collect as much as you possibly can,
and to send it, not to me, but to my wife, so that she may have
enough to get away and to join me with the assurance of being
able to live with me free from care for some time at least.
Dearest friend, you care for my welfare, my soul, my art. Once
more restore me to my art! I do not cling to a home, but I cling
to this poor, good, faithful woman, to whom as yet I have caused
almost nothing but grief, who is of a careful, serious
disposition, without enthusiasm, and who feels herself chained
for ever to such a reckless devil as myself. Restore her to me;
by doing so you will give me all you can wish for me, and,
believe me, for that I shall be grateful to you, yea grateful!

You will see how quickly I shall turn out things. My preparations
for Paris, the pamphlet, and even two sketches for subjects will
be ready and on their way next month. Where I cannot agree with
you I shall win you over to me; that I promise, so that we may
always go hand in hand and never separate. I will obey you, but
give me my poor wife; arrange it so that she may come cheerfully,
with some confidence, soon and quickly. Alas! this, in the
language of our dear nineteenth century, means, Send her as much
money as you can possibly get. Yes, such is my nature; I can beg,
I could steal, to cheer up my wife, were it only for a little
while. Dear, good Liszt, see what you can do! Help me, help me,
dear Liszt. Farewell, and--help me!

Your grateful

RICHARD WAGNER.

Write straight to my wife: Minna Wagner, Friedrich-strasse No.
20, Dresden.



24.

DEAR FRIEND,

In answer to your letter, I have remitted one hundred thalers to
your wife at Dresden. This sum has been handed to me by an
admirer of "Tannhauser", whom you do not know, and who has
specially asked me not to name him to you.

With Y. B., who paid me a visit yesterday, I talked over your
position at length. I hope his family will take an active
interest in your affairs.

All the scores (excepting the overture to "Faust") I sent to
Zurich last week. The separation from your "Lohengrin" was
difficult to me. The more I enter into its conception and
masterly execution, the higher rises my enthusiasm for this
extraordinary work. Forgive my wretched pusillanimity if I still
have some doubt as to the wholly satisfactory result of the
performance.

Permit me one question: Do you not think it advisable to add to
"Tannhauser" a dedication (post scriptum) to the Lord of
Wartburg, H.R.H. Carl Alexander, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-
Weymar-Eisenach?

If you agree to this, have a very simple plate to that effect
engraved, and send me in advance, together with your next letter,
a few lines to the Hereditary Grand Duke, which I shall hand to
him at once. For the present you must expect no special donation
in return, but the sympathy of the prince for your masterpiece
fully justifies this attention.

Friendly greetings to Alexander Muller, to whom I am still very
grateful for his friendly reception at Zurich. If you should see
J. E., assure him of my sincere interest in his further welfare.
He is an honest, able, excellent man.

Hold me in kind remembrance, even as I am cordially devoted to
you.

F. LISZT

WEYMAR, July 29th, 1849

P.S.--Be careful in your articles in the newspapers to omit all
political allusions to Germany, and leave royal princes alone. In
case there should be an opportunity of paying Weymar a modest
compliment en passant, give free vent to your reminiscences with
the necessary kid gloves.



25.

DEAR LISZT,

I herewith send you my last finished work; it is a new version of
the original article which I sent to Paris last week to have it
translated for the feuilleton of the National. Whether you will
be pleased with it I do not know, but I feel certain that your
nature is at one with me. I hope you will find in it nothing of
the political commonplaces, socialistic balderdash, or personal
animosities, against which you warned me; but that, in the
deepest depth of things, I see what I see, is entirely owing to
the circumstance that my own artistic nature and the sufferings
it has to go through have opened my eyes in such a manner that
death alone can close them again. I look forward either to an
entirely useless existence, or to an activity which responds to
my inmost being, even if I have to exercise it afar from all
external splendour. In the former case I should have to think of
abbreviating that existence.

Please address and send the manuscript, together with the
enclosed letter, to the publisher Otto Wigand in Leipzig. Perhaps
I shall succeed in drawing from my inferior literary faculty some
small support for my existence. Since my last letter, which I
posted at the same time with my stormy petition to you, I have
had no news from my wife, and am slightly tortured accordingly.

From a letter written by Baron Schober to Eck at Zurich, I see
with great pleasure that your prospects are cheerful, and that
you are resolved to settle in Weimar. I presume that the
excellent Princess is also happy and well. Heaven be thanked!
Whether you ought to show her my manuscript I am not quite
certain; in it I am so much of a Greek that I have not been able
quite to convert myself to Christianity. But what nonsense I
talk! As if you were not the right people! Pardon me.

Farewell, dear, unique friend! Remember me in kindness.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, August 4th, 1849

Have you been good enough to see about the forwarding to me of my
scores and writings? I am anxious at not having seen anything of
them.



26.

DEAREST FRIEND,

A thousand thanks for your letter, and for kindly taking care of
my wife. The unknown donor is wrong in wishing to be hidden from
me. Thank him in my name.

The day before yesterday I sent you a long article; probably you
have read it. I am glad that I can agree to your wish to dedicate
"Tannhauser" to the Grand Duke without the slightest abnegation
of my principles, for I hope you will see that I care for
something else than the stupid political questions of the day.

It would be best if you could have the dedication page and the
special copy done through Meser, in which case you might also, if
necessary, promise to bear the trifling expense, for of that
copyright not a single note is mine. I hope you like the verses.
Will you put the letter to the Grand Duke in an addressed
envelope?

Oh, my friends, if you would only give me the wages of a middling
mechanic, you would have pleasure in my undisturbed work, which
should all be yours.

Thanks for sending the scores. "Lohengrin" will be especially
useful to me, for I hope to pawn the score here for some hundreds
of florins, so as to have money for myself and my wife for the
next few months.

Your doubts as to a satisfactory effect of the performance of the
opera have frequently occurred to me. I think, however, that if
the performance is quite according to my colour, the work--
including even the end--will be all right. One must dare.

Muller and Eck were delighted by your greetings, and return them
with enthusiasm.

Dear, good Liszt, I also thank you most cordially for all the
care you take of me. Consider that I can give you nothing better
in return than the best I can accomplish. Give me perfect peace,
and you shall be satisfied. I hope my wife will be here soon;
then you shall soon have good news of me.

Farewell, and continue to be my friend.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, August 7th, 1849



27.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

After a silence of several months, I cannot address you without
first of all thanking you once more with all my heart for the
friendly assistance which enabled me to have my poor wife back
again. By this assistance my wife made it possible to preserve
and bring with her some favourite trifles of our former household
and, before all, my grand piano. We are settled here as well as
possible; and after a long interruption, full of pain and unrest,
I am once more able to think of the execution of my great
artistic plans for the future.

After this final reunion with my much-tried wife, nothing could
have given me greater pleasure than to learn about the produce of
your artistic activity. The pieces written by you for the
centenary of Goethe's birth I have now seen in the pianoforte
score, and have occupied myself with them attentively. With all
my heart I bid you welcome, and am glad--especially also in
sympathy with your friend--that you behave so valiantly in this
field of honour, selected by you with glorious consistency. What
I felt most vividly, after my acquaintance with these
compositions, was the desire to know that you were writing an
opera or finishing one already begun. The aphoristic nature of
such tasks as those set you by this Goethe celebration must
involuntarily be transferred to the artistic production, which
therefore cannot attain to perfect warmth. Creative power in
music appears to me like a bell, which the larger it is is the
less able to give forth its full tone, unless an adequate power
has set it in motion. This power is internal, and where it does
not exist internally it does not exist at all. The purely
internal, however, cannot operate unless it is stimulated by
something external, related to it and yet different. Creative
power in music surely requires this stimulus no less than does
any other great artistic power; a great incitement alone can make
it effective. As I have every reason to deem your power great, I
desire for it the corresponding great incitement; for nothing
here can be arbitrarily substituted or added: genuine strength
can only create from necessity. Wherever in the series of your
pieces Goethe himself incites your strength, the bell resounds
with its natural full tone, and the clapper beats in it as the
heart does in the body. If you had been able to ring the whole
"Faust"-bell (I know this was impossible), if the detached pieces
had had reference to a great whole, then that great whole would
have thrown on the single pieces a reflex which is exactly the
certain something that may be gained from the great whole, but
not from the single piece. In single, aphoristic things we never
attain repose; only in a great whole is great power self-
contained, strong, and therefore, in spite of all excitement,
reposeful. Unrest in what we do is a proof that our activity is
not perfectly self-contained, that not our whole power, but only
a detached particle of that power, is in action. This unrest I
have found in your compositions, even as you must have found it
too often in mine without better cause. With this unrest I was,
however, better pleased than if comfortable self-contentment had
been their prominent feature. I compare it to the claw by which I
recognize the lion; but now I call out to you, Show us the
complete lion: in other words, write or finish soon an opera.

Dear friend, look upon me with an earnest but kind glance! All
the ills that have happened to me were the natural and necessary
consequences of the discord of my own being. The power which is
mine is quite unyielding and indivisible. By its nature it takes
violent revenge when I try to turn or divide it by external
force. To be wholly what I can be, and therefore, no doubt,
should be, is only possible for me if I renounce all those
external things which I could gain by dint of the aforesaid
external force. That force would always make me fritter away my
genuine power, would always conjure up the same evils. In all I
do and think I am only artist, nothing but artist. If I am to
throw myself into our modern publicity, I cannot conquer it as an
artist, and God preserve me from dealing with it as a politician.
Poor and without means for bare life, without goods or heritage,
as I am, I should be compelled to think only of acquisition; but
I have learnt nothing but my art, and that I cannot possibly use
for the purpose of acquiring nowadays; I cannot seek publicity,
and my artistic salvation could be brought about one day only by
publicity seeking me. The publicity for which alone I can work is
a small nucleus of individuals who constitute my whole publicity
at present. To these individuals, therefore, I must turn, and put
the question to them whether they love me and my art-work
sufficiently to make it possible for me, as far as in them lies,
to be myself, and to develop my activity without disturbance.
These individuals are not many, and they live far from each
other, but the character of their sympathy is an energetic one.
Dear friend, the question with me is bare life. You have opened
Paris to me, and I most certainly do not refuse it; but what I
have to choose and to design for that place cannot be chosen and
designed in a moment; I must there be some one else and yet
necessarily remain the same. All my numerous sketches are adapted
only to treatment by myself, and in the German language. Subjects
which I should have been prepared to execute for Paris (such as
"Jesus of Nazareth") turn out to be impossible for manifold
reasons when I come to consider closely the practical bearings of
the thing, and I must therefore have time and leisure to wait for
inspiration, which I can expect only from some remote region of
my nature. On the other hand, the poem of my "Siegfried" lies
before me. After not having composed a note for two years, my
whole artistic man is impelled towards writing the music for it.
What I could possibly hope for from a Paris success would not
even be able to keep me alive; for, without being thoroughly
dishonest, I should have to hand it over to my creditors.

The question, then, is, How and whence shall I get enough to
live? Is my finished work "Lohengrin" worth nothing? Is the opera
which I am longing to complete worth nothing? It is true that to
the present generation and to publicity as it is these must
appear as a useless luxury. But how about the few who love these
works? Should not they be allowed to offer to the poor suffering
creator--not a remuneration, but the bare possibility of
continuing to create?

To the tradesmen I cannot apply, nor to the existing nobility--
not to human princes, but to princely men. To work my best, my
inmost salvation, I am not in a position to rely on merit, but on
grace. If we few in this villainous trading age are not gracious
towards each other, how can we live in the name and for the
honour of art?

Dear friend, you, I believe, are the only one on whom I can
implicitly rely. Do not be frightened! I have tried to relieve
you of the burden of this exclusive reliance; I have turned
elsewhere, but in vain. From H. B., about whom you wrote to me, I
have heard nothing, and am glad from my heart that I have not.
Dear Liszt, let us leave the TRADESMEN alone once for all. They
are human and even love art, but only as far as BUSINESS will
allow.

Tell me; advise me! Hitherto my wife and I have kept ourselves
alive by the help of a friend here. By the end of this month of
October our last florins will be gone, and a wide, beautiful
world lies before me, in which I have nothing to eat, nothing to
warm myself with. Think of what you can do for me, dear, princely
man! Let some one buy my "Lohengrin," skin and bones; let some
one commission my "Siegfried." I will do it cheaply! Leaving our
old plan of a confederation of princes out of the question, can
you not find some other individuals who would join together to
help me, if YOU were to ask them in the proper manner? Shall I
put in the newspaper "I have nothing to live on; let him who
loves me give me something"? I cannot do it because of my wife;
she would die of shame. Oh the trouble it is to find a place in
the world for a man like me! If nothing else will answer, you
might perhaps give a concert "for an artist in distress."
Consider everything, dear Liszt, and before all manage to send me
soon some--some money. I want firewood, and a warm overcoat,
because my wife has not brought my old one on account of its
shabbiness. Consider!

From Belloni I soon expect an invitation to Paris, so as to get
my "Tannhauser" overture performed at the Conservatoire, to begin
with. Well, dear friend, give one of your much-occupied days to
the serious and sympathetic consideration of what you might do
for me. Your loving nature, free from all prejudice and only
occupied with the artist in me, will suggest to you a great work
of love which will be my salvation. Believe me, I speak sincerely
and openly; believe me that in you lies my only hope.

Farewell. Receive, together with mine, the most ardent wishes of
my good wife. Remember me, as one cordially devoted to her, to
Princess Wittgenstein, and thank her in my name if she should
think of me now and then.

Farewell, you good man, and let me soon hear from you.

Wholly yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, October 14th, 1849 (Am Zeltwege, in den hinteren
Escherhausern, 182.)



28.

DEAR FRIEND,

For more than a month I have been detained here by the serious
illness of the young Princess M. W. My return to Weymar is in
consequence forcibly postponed for at least another month, and
before returning there it is impossible for me to think of
serving you with any efficiency. You propose to me to find you a
purchaser for "Lohengrin" and "Siegfried." This will certainly
not be an easy matter, for these operas, being essentially--I
might say exclusively--German, can at most be represented in five
or six German towns. You know, moreover, that since the Dresden
affair OFFICIAL Germany is not favourable to your name. Dresden,
Berlin, and Vienna are well-nigh impossible fields for your works
for some time to come. If, as is not unlikely, I go to Berlin for
a few days this winter, I shall try to interest the King in your
genius and your future; perhaps I shall succeed in gaining his
sympathy for you and in managing through that means your return
by way of Berlin, which would certainly be your best chance. But
I need not tell you how delicate such a step is, and how
difficult to lead to a good end. As to the "confederation of
princes" which you mention again in your letter, I must
unfortunately repeat to you that I believe in its realization
about as much as in mythology.

Nevertheless I shall not omit to sound the disposition of H.H.
the Duke of Coburg during the visit I shall probably have the
honour of paying him at the beginning of January. By his superior
intelligence and personal love of music, access to him will be
made easier. But as to the other thirty-eight sovereigns of
Germany (excepting Weymar, Gotha, and Berlin), I confess that I
do not know how I shall manage to instill into them so subtle an
idea as would be the positive encouragement and the active
protection of an artist of your stamp.

As to the dedication of "Tannhauser," the Hereditary Grand Duke,
while graciously receiving your intention, has sent me word that
it would be more convenient to defer the publication for a few
months, so that I have not been in a hurry to make the necessary
arrangements for the engraving of the dedication plate.

Try, my dear friend, to get on as best you can till Christmas. My
purse is completely dry at this moment; and you are aware, no
doubt, that the fortune of the Princess has been for a year
without an administrator, and may be completely confiscated any
day. Towards the end of the year I reckon upon money coming in,
and shall then certainly not fail to let you have some, as far as
my very limited means will go; you know what heavy charges are
weighing upon me. Before thinking of myself I must provide for
the comfortable existence of my mother and my dear children in
Paris, and I can also not avoid paying Belloni a modest salary
for the services he renders me, although he has always shown
himself most nobly disinterested on my behalf. My concert career,
as you know, has been closed for more than two years past, and I
cannot resume it imprudently without serious damage to my present
position and still more to my future.

However, on my way through Hamburg I have yielded to numerous
solicitations to conduct in April a grand "Musical Festival," the
greater part of the receipts of which will be devoted to the
"Pension Fund of Musicians," which I founded about seven years
ago.

Your "Tannhauser" overture will of course figure in the
programme, and perhaps also, if we have sufficient time and
means, the finale of the first or second act,--unless you have
some other pieces to propose. Kindly write on this subject to
your niece, who is engaged for the whole winter at Hamburg, and
ask her to come to our assistance on this occasion. For it is my
firm intention (not AVOWED or DIVULGED, you understand, for there
would be much inconvenience and no advantage in confiding it to
friends or the public) to set aside part of the receipts for you.
Could not you, on your part, arrange some concerts at Zurich, the
proceeds of which would enable you to get through the winter
tolerably? Why should you not undertake this? Your personal
dignity, it seems to me, would not in the least suffer by it.

Yet another thing, another string to your bow. Should you think
it inconvenient to publish a book of vocal compositions,--lieder
or ballads, melodies or lyrical effusions, anything? For a work
of this class signed with your name I can easily find a publisher
and insist upon a decent honorarium, and there is surely nothing
derogatory in continuing in a path which Mozart, Beethoven,
Schubert, and Rossini have not disdained. I quite understand what
you say of my compositions in the "Goethe Album," and only regret
you did not hear my "Tasso" overture, which, I flatter myself,
would not have displeased you. In consequence of the good opinion
which you kindly express of my talent as a composer, I am going
to ask you a favour if the idea meets with your approval. While
recently glancing through the volume of Lord Byron which has
scarcely ever quitted me on my travels, I came again upon the
mystery "Heaven and Earth," and on reading it once more felt
persuaded that one might turn it to good account by preserving
the difference of character between the two women Anah and
Aholibamah and by keeping of course the Deluge as a purely
instrumental piece for the denouement. If in your free moments
you could think of cutting out of this an oratorio of moderate
length, as in Byron, I should be truly obliged to you.

Read over the Mystery, and tell me whether you like my plan. In
the course of the summer my "Sardanapalus" (in Italian) will be
completely finished, and I shall be delighted to undertake
another work at once.

If you reply before the end of November, address Buckeburg, for I
shall not return to Weymar, for the rest of the winter, till the
beginning of December.

Remember me very kindly to Madame Wagner, and in all
circumstances rely upon my devoted friendship and admiration.

F. LISZT

BOCKEBURG, October 28th, 1849



29.

MY DEAR FRIEND LISZT,

God knows, the more I look into my future, the more I feel what I
possess in you. Such as I am and such as you are, I come to
understand better and better what a rare degree of friendship and
kindness you must have towards me to show me the most active
sympathy of all my friends, in spite of many sides of my nature
which cannot possibly be agreeable to you. You resemble in this
the true poet who, with perfect impartiality, takes every
phenomenon of life as it is according to its essence. As regards
your anxiety about me, I can assure you that if you had sent me
some assistance in answer to my last request, I should not have
been more touched than I was in feeling with you your sorrow at
having to confess that for the time being you could not send me
anything. I helped myself as well as I could by applying to my
friends here. If I had not a wife, and a wife who has already
gone with me through such hard times, I should be much less
anxious about the future; but for her sake I frequently sink into
deep dejection. But that dejection does not help me on; and,
thanks to my healthy nature, I always nerve myself to renewed
courage. Having lately expressed my whole view of art in a work
entitled "The Art-work of the Future," I am now free from all
theoretic hankerings, and have got so far as to care about
nothing but doing art-work. I should have liked best to complete
my "Siegfried," but this wish I could realize only in
exceptionally favourable circumstances, namely if I could look
forward to a year free from material care. This is not the case,
and the care for my future makes it my duty altogether to think
more seriously of my appointed tasks than has hitherto been
possible amidst the most conflicting impressions. Listen, dear
friend: the reason why for a long time I could not warm to the
idea of writing an opera for Paris was a certain artistic dislike
of the French language which is peculiar to me. You will not
understand this, being at home in all Europe, while I came into
the world in a specifically Teutonic manner. But this dislike I
have conquered in favour of an important artistic undertaking.
The next question was the poem and a subject, and here I must
confess that it would be absolutely impossible for me simply to
write music to another man's poems, not because I consider this
beneath me, but because I know, and know by experience, that my
music would be bad and meaningless. What operatic subjects I had
in my head would not have done for Paris, and this was the cause
of my hesitation in the whole affair which you had initiated so
well. Since then I have clearly discovered what task I have in
reality to perform in Paris, so as to remain true to myself and
yet keep Paris always in my mind's eye. As to this, dear friend,
we shall perhaps understand each other perfectly, and you will
agree with me when I determine not to become a Frenchman (in
which I should never succeed, and which the French do not want
from a German), but to remain as I am and in my own character to
speak to the French comprehensibly. Well, in this sense the
subject for a poem has quite recently occurred to me, which I
shall immediately work out and communicate to Gustave Vaez; it is
highly original and suitable to all conditions. More I will tell
you as soon as I have finished the scenario. Belloni has asked me
for the scores of my overtures to "Tannhauser" and "Rienzi," the
first for a concert at the Conservatoire; I believe it is to be
performed next January, and at that time I shall go to Paris
myself to conduct the overture, to settle everything with Gustave
Vaez, and to co-operate with him in obtaining a commission for an
opera. One thing more: I cannot allow my "Lohengrin" to lie by
and decay. Latterly I have accustomed myself to the notion of
giving it to the world at first in a foreign language, and I now
take up your own former idea of having it translated into
English, so as to make its production in London possible. I am
not afraid that this opera would not be understood by the
English, and for a slight alteration I should be quite prepared.
As yet, however, I do not know a single person in London. With
the publisher Beal I made acquaintance par distance when he
printed the overture to "Rienzi," but apart from this I have no
connection with London. Could you manage, dear friend, to write
to London and to introduce my undertaking, and could you also let
me know to whom to apply further? From Paris I should then go to
London, in order to settle the matter if possible.

You perceive that I am only intent on carrying out the scheme
originally suggested by you. Do not be angry with me for taking
it in hand so late. At first it was your plan exclusively, and I
had to make it mine; my awkwardness in this you must kindly
attribute to my extraordinary position and mental trouble.

But now it is important, dear Liszt, to provide me with means for
this definite object. That you alone cannot support me I realized
long ago; and knowing as I do your position, it is altogether
with a heavy heart that I ask you for further sacrifices. I have
therefore applied to a friend at Dresden (himself poor), and have
asked him to see if he could get me some money from my other
friends, so as to help me, in conjunction with you, over my
immediate and greatest difficulties. His news so far does not
lead me to expect any great success from his efforts, and in any
case it will not amount to much. You were kind enough to promise
me some assistance from your own means towards the end of the
year. Do not be angry if I assure you that I shall be compelled
to count upon your kind fulfillment of this promise.

I trust in no one else, and do not indulge in any further
illusions. Of a concert in Zurich I have thought myself. The
local concert society have asked me to study with their
orchestra, which is feeble, a symphony by Beethoven and one of my
compositions, in return for which they would arrange a benefit
concert lor me. The necessary increase of the strings, which I
had to demand as a point of honour, has delayed the matter up
till now, and it will be probably the beginning of January before
the subscription concert takes place which is to be, so to speak,
the captatio benevolentioe for my benefit concert. It is
therefore not unlikely that I shall not be able to wait for the
favourable moment, as I expect to be summoned to Paris by Belloni
towards the beginning of next year. Any assistance from that
quarter is therefore very problematic. Your thought of me in
wishing to set aside part of the receipts of an intended concert
at Hamburg has touched me deeply. You are a good man; and every
day, alas! I feel more sure that I have no friend like you. In
any case my niece shall interest herself in the concert; that
small errand I willingly undertake.

All I want is to provide my poor wife during my absence with the
money necessary for her subsistence, which will not amount to
much, also to enable me to pay for my journeys and my stay in
Paris and London. Belloni must get me a small, cheap room, and I
promise to be as careful as possible in every way. I trust you
and the above-mentioned friends will be able to provide me with
the necessary means. Let us hope that success will reward your
beautiful and rare sympathy.

Farewell, dear and valued friend! Remember me and my wife
cordially to Princess Wittgenstein, and be assured at all times
of my enthusiastic recognition of your rare and beautiful nature.

Always your deeply obliged friend,

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, December 5th, 1849 The subject from Byron I shall
certainly consider. As yet I do not know it, nor have had time to
make myself acquainted with it, for which you must pardon me. I
should be too glad to be of any service to you, and am thankful
to you for showing me the way to do it. Let me only finish my
opera sketch for Paris first.

My address is "Am Zeltweg, in den hinteren Escherhausern," No.
182.



30.

DEAR FRIEND,

I have just returned to Weymar, and hasten to send you a bill on
Rothschild for five hundred francs. According to what you tell
me, I hope it will be of service to you in Paris, where, I am
convinced, you will find the best field for your activity and
your genius.

I quite agree with your decision "to remain thoroughly faithful
to yourself and yet always to have Paris before your eyes in the
conception and execution of your designs." I anticipate soon the
most excellent and satisfactory results. You are quite right in
not wishing to become a Frenchman; apart from the fact that you
would scarcely succeed, your task is a different and even a
contrary one, viz., to Germanize the French in your sense of the
word, or rather to inspire them and fill them with enthusiasm for
more general, more comprehensive, more elevated, dramatic art-
work.

I should be delighted to learn what operatic subject you have
selected, and my earnest desire is that you will use all your
time in hastening the representation. In actual circumstances it
is almost impossible for you to think of a speedy return to
Germany where, moreover, you would find nothing but disagreeable
things, envy, and enmity. Paris and perhaps London are absolutely
necessary for your present and future career. Whatever the
annoyances and sufferings may be which you will have to go
through during the period of transition in which you are
unhappily placed, take courage and have full confidence in the
star of your genius. The day after your first performance in
Paris you will be "as one new-born and content like a Greek god."

Regarding London, it will be somewhat difficult to place your
"Lohengrin" there. It depends very much upon the chance of a good
opportunity, which I hope will turn up. I shortly expect M. Ernst
on his return from London, and he will give me some details as to
the actual situation and the personnel of the London theatres.
Italian opera not being suitable to you in any form, you will
have to attach yourself to one of the ephemeral enterprises of
the English stage, ensuring, of course, every possible precaution
and guarantee. I shall one of these days write direct to Mr.
Chorley, an excellent friend of mine, who will give me the
necessary information and help you during your stay in London.
Before the spring I shall perhaps be able to give you some
favourable news. You on your part must strike every iron while it
is hot, and before all "stick to our Paris plans." For the fete
of the Grand Duchess I shall conduct "Iphigenia in Aulis," which
Herr von Zigesar has got for me from Dresden, and this in spite
of the opposition, from want of intelligence or evil intention,
which I shall have to encounter. Herr von Luttichau has declined
all responsibility for the loan of your score, and I have boldly
undertaken to be answerable to you for it.

At the end of the week we shall repeat "Tannhauser," which, by
some miracle of taste, the Weymar public and many people from the
surrounding towns have demanded ever since the beginning of the
theatrical season, and which has been postponed only on account
of my absence.

Let me hear from you soon, dear friend, and continue to dispose
of me as of your sincerely devoted friend,

F. LISZT

WEYMAR, January 14th, 1850

P.S.--Kindly give my best remembrances and compliments to Madame
Wagner.



31.

MY DEAR LISZT,

You will know by this time how I have fared in Paris. The
performance of my overture came to nothing, and all your trouble
about it has been in vain. Poor man!

In my life some decisive events have happened; the last shackles
have fallen that tied me to a world in which I must have perished
soon, not only mentally, but physically. Through the eternal
compulsion imposed upon me by my immediate surroundings, I have
lost my health, and my nerves are shattered. In the immediate
future I must live only for my recovery; my existence is provided
for; you shall hear from me from time to time.

Dear friend, I have just been looking through the score of my
"Lohengrin." I very seldom read my own works. An immense desire
has sprung up in me to have this work performed. I address this
wish to your heart:--

Perform my "Lohengrin"! You are the only one to whom I could
address this prayer; to none but you I should entrust the
creation of this opera; to you I give it with perfect and joyous
confidence. Perform it where you like, even if only in Weimar; I
feel certain you will procure every possible and necessary means,
and they will refuse you nothing. Perform "Lohengrin," and let
its existence be your work. There is a correct score of the opera
at Dresden. Herr von Luttichau has bought it of me for the price
of the copying (thirty-six thalers). As he is not going to
perform it--against which I should protest, considering the
musical, direction in that city--it is possible that he will let
you have the copy on repayment of the thirty--six thalers, or
else he will in any case have it copied out for you. This letter
may be your authority for receiving it,

If you comply with my wish, I shall send you soon a complete
libretto, with exact indications of my view as to the mise-en-
scene, etc.

Do what you can and what you like. You shall soon hear from me
again.

Belloni tells me that you have promised him to get me an
additional five hundred francs for the score of "Iphigenia." If
you succeed in this, remit the money for me to Belloni; I shall
in my thoughts dispose of it.

Farewell, dear friend and brother. Remember me to my few friends.
If the Grand Duchess and the Hereditary Grand Duke will accept a
greeting, greet them most cordially from me.

Farewell, and think well of

Your faithful and grateful

RICHARD WAGNER

PARIS, April 21st, 1850



32.

DEAREST LISZT,

I herewith send you the promised directions for the performance
of "Lohengrin." Pardon me if they come too late. I heard only
recently with what amiable and speedy readiness you have complied
with my wish for the performance of this opera. When we meet
again, I shall have many things to tell you. Of my immediate past
I only say that my intended journey to Greece has come to
nothing; there were too many impediments, which I found it
impossible to overcome. Better than anything else I should have
liked to get out of the world altogether. Of this more later on.

As I understand that you are going to perform "Lohengrin" as
early as August 28th, I must not delay my instructions any
longer, leaving other matters for a later communication.

First of all, I have in the enclosed treated of scenery and
decorations. My drawings made for that purpose will give you
great delight; I count them amongst the most successful creations
of my genius. Where my technique forsook me, you must be
satisfied with the good intention, which will be clear to you
from the literary explanation attached to it. The trees
especially presented me with insuperable difficulties, and if
every painter has to perspire over perspective as I have done,
his art is by no means an easy calling. As to the rest, I have in
my notes always referred to the full score, in which I have
indicated--much more fully and clearly than in the libretto--the
scenic action in conjunction with the music. The stage-manager
will have to go exactly by the score, or at least an arrangement
of it.

As to the orchestra, I have also put down some remarks for you.

But now I have first of all a great wish to address to you:

Give the opera as it is; cut nothing!

One single cut I will indicate to you myself, and I even insist
upon the omission of the passage, viz., the second part of
Lohengrin's tale in the final scene of the third act. After the
words of Lohengrin--"Sein Ritter ich bin Lohengrin ge"--[nannt
fifty-six bars must be omitted] "Wo ihr mit Gott mich landen"
["saht" therefore,--"nannt" instead of "saht"].

I have frequently sung it to myself, and have come to the
conclusion that this second part of the tale must produce a
depressing effect. The passage is therefore to be omitted in the
libretto as well.

As to the rest, I must request you urgently, Let me for once do
as I like. I have been intent upon establishing so unfailing, so
plastic, a connection between the music and the poem and action,
that I feel quite certain as to the result. Rely upon me, and do
not attribute it to my being in love with my own work. If you
should feel compelled to make cuts on account of excessive
difficulty, I should ask you to consider whether it would not be
better to leave the performance alone on account of insufficiency
of means. I assume, however, that all possible means will be
readily placed at your disposal, and also that you will succeed
in conquering every difficulty if you are fully determined to do
so. If you make up your mind that it must be, then I am sure that
it will be, or else that you would rather give up the whole
thing. As to this, I think, we agree.

Concerning the chief thing, the cast of vocalists, I rely upon
you with perfect confidence. You will not undertake impossible
things. Our friend Gotze, to whom I am in any case much indebted
for his Tannhauser, will find more difficulties in Lohengrin,
because he lacks in external appearance and voice that
resplendent quality which, where nature has vouchsafed it, must
make the part easy. Let him supply that resplendence as far as
possible by means of art. To look at him ought to make one's eyes
smart. A newly revised libretto intended for the printer I send
at the same time with this. It will arrive by the ordinary mail.
As to this libretto, I have the following wish to express: Sell
it, or if you can get nothing for it, give it to a publisher who
will undertake to bring it out beautifully, at least as well as
the libretto of "Tannhauser"; the Weimar theatre then gets as
many copies from the publisher as it wants for sale in the house,
allowing a certain commission. This is exactly what we did with
"Tannhauser." As I should like you to dispose of the pianoforte
score, made by Uhlig in Dresden, to a music-publisher, the best
way would be to offer the libretto to the same man whom you have
in your eye for the pianoforte arrangement. That libretto, if
sold at a moderate price, is, however, by no means a bad
business. Of "Tannhauser" we sold over two thousand copies. One
thing more: tell me, dear Liszt, how could we make it possible
that I could attend the first performance in Weimar incognito?
This is a desperate question, especially as at this moment it is
no longer, as it recently was, a matter of indifference to me
whether I am to dwell in a royal Saxon prison or not. Listen: I
hold the Grand Duchess in high regard; would not this lady, to
whom I attribute real nobility, at your suggestion be inclined
for the stroke of genius of duping the police of united Germany,
and of getting me a safe conduct under an assumed name from
Switzerland to Weimar and back again to Zurich? I promise
faithfully to preserve my incognito in the most stoical manner,
to lie perdu in Weimar for a little time, and to go straight
back, guaranteeing all the time the strictest secrecy from abroad
also. Or would this be more easily achievable through the Duke of
Coburg? Of him I hear many things that delight me. Anyhow look
into this; you would give a poor devil like me real joy, and
perhaps a new stimulus and much-needed encouragement.

If it is possible, or even if it is impossible, I ask further,
Would you like to pay me a short visit in Zurich soon? You are
devilish quick at such things. If I could see you again now, I
should go half mad through joy, therefore wholly mad, as people
have surely taken me for half mad a long time since. I would sing
"Lohengrin" to you from A to Z; that would be a real pleasure!
Enough for today. I shall soon write again. Whether I have got
any money from Weimar for "Iphigenia" I cannot tell yet; there
has latterly been much confusion around me. I am about to crush
some most absurd rumours which have been spread abroad concerning
me by returning to Zurich. Address to me there "Enge, Sterngasse,
Hirzel's Haus, Zurich."

Farewell, old, dear, only friend! I know you love me. Believe
that I respond from my fullest heart.

Ever thine,

RICHARD WAGNER

THUN, July 2nd, 1850



33.

DEAR LISZT,

Would you be kind enough to answer the following simple question
briefly by "Yes" or "No"? Did the management of the Weimar
theatre intend to pay me five hundred francs for my version of
"Iphigenia," as Belloni told me after his return to Weimar?
Further, have these five hundred francs been sent anywhere for
me, and to whom and where should I in that case have to apply? or
if they have not been sent, may I still count on them? Lastly, if
the latter should be the case, will you ask Herr von Zigesar to
send three hundred francs of the sum to Belloni in Paris, in
settlement of a tailor's bill falling due July 15th, and remit
the balance of two hundred francs to me at Zurich as soon as
possible?

My question has become more complicated than I thought, as
complicated, indeed, as is the demand on Herr von Zigesar to pay
me five hundred francs for a mere arrangement. That you have
managed to insist upon this demand I must in any case look upon
as one of your miracles.

Dearest friend, you have, I hope, received my long letter from
Thun. Shall I soon hear from you, or could you really manage to
pay me a flying visit?

Best greetings from your most faithful

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, July l0th, 1850

(Bei Frau Hirzel, Sterngasse, Enge.)



34.

DEAREST FRIEND,

Believe me, you have not for a moment ceased to be very near to
my heart. The serious, enthusiastic admiration I have for your
genius would not be satisfied with sleepy habits and barren
sentiments. All that I can possibly do, either in the interest of
your reputation and glory or in that of your person, you may feel
perfectly certain will in no circumstances remain undone. Only a
friend like you is not always quite easy and convenient to serve,
for those who understand you must wish, before all, to serve you
in an intelligent and dignified manner. I hope that so far I have
not been wanting in these two essential conditions, and I do not
mean to depart from them for the future. You may therefore have
full confidence in me, and listen to me, and believe me as one
who is frankly and without restriction devoted to you. But let us
speak definitely of your affairs, which, for some time at least,
I have made seriously my own.

1. I found it impossible to get the five hundred francs for
"Iphigenia" from the management. Nevertheless, you shall not be
disappointed, for at the same time with this letter I forward to
Belloni in Paris three hundred francs from my private purse,
which he will hold at your disposal, and pay at your order either
to your tailor or to any other person you may indicate. Apart
from this, I have good hope that Herr von Zigesar, from whom I
enclose a few lines, will be able to send you in a few days one
hundred thalers, independently of the honorarium for "Lohengrin,"
which will be about thirty louis d'or.

2. Your "Lohengrin" will be given under exceptional conditions,
which are most favourable to its success. The management for this
occasion spends about 2,000 thalers, a thing that has not been
done in Weymar within the memory of man. The press will not be
forgotten, and suitable and seriously conceived articles will
appear successively in several papers. All the personnel will be
put on its mettle. The number of violins will be slightly
increased (from sixteen to eighteen), and a bass clarinet has
been purchased. Nothing essential will be wanting in the musical
material or design. I undertake all the rehearsals with
pianoforte, chorus, strings, and orchestra. Genast will follow
your indications for the mise-en-scene with zeal and energy. It
is understood that we shall not cut a note, not an iota, of your
work, and that we shall give it in its absolute beauty, as far as
is in our power. The special date of August 28th, on which
"Lohengrin" will be performed, cannot be but favourable to it. To
speak truth, I should not be allowed to put so extraordinary a.
work on the stage in the ordinary course of the theatrical
season. Herr von Zigesar has fully realized that "Lohengrin" must
be an event. For that reason they have curtailed the theatrical
holidays by one-half, and have asked my friend Dingelstedt to
write a prologue ad hoc, which he will bring us himself towards
the middle of August, the first performance being fixed for
August 28th, the anniversary of Goethe's birth, and three days
after the inauguration of the Herder monument, which will take
place on the 25th. In connection with that Herder monument we
shall have a great concourse of people here; and besides that,
for the 28th the delegates of the Goethe foundation are convoked
to settle the definite programme of that foundation at Weymar.

After two consecutive performances of "Lohengrin" the theatre
will close again for another month, and "Lohengrin" will not be
resumed till some time in the course of the winter.

3. With regard to the sale of the score, the matter is not quite
so simple, and I need not enumerate and explain to you the
commercial difficulties. Nevertheless, if you charge me with this
matter, I shall be to bring it to a good end; but a little time
will be necessary. If, as I have no doubt, the success of
"Lohengrin" is once firmly established at Weymar, you will
perhaps find means to influence the B.'s so that they may have it
done at Leipsic. In that case Tichatschek would be required for
the principal part, and your most devoted capellmeister would, if
you should think it necessary, take care of the rest on certain
conditions.

If the work succeeds at Leipzig, a publisher will easily be
found; but I must not conceal from you that the success of
"Lohengrin" seems to me somewhat doubtful, unless the necessary
preliminary precautions with regard to study, rehearsals, and the
press are taken. In leaving it to its fate--although, no doubt,
it deserves a propitious fate--I have serious apprehensions from
the ill-will which attaches to you personally and from the envy
and stupidity which still combat your genius. Consider therefore
carefully what plan you had better adopt in this matter. In the
meantime I thank you cordially for the indications and hints
which you give me about the score. I shall obey them with respect
and friendship. Kindly write two words to Herr Uhlig in Dresden
so as to prevent him from making difficulties about sending me
the pianoforte score, which will be very useful to me.

I come to a point which pains me much, but which it is my duty
not to conceal from you. Your return to Germany and visit to
Weymar for the performance of "Lohengrin" is an absolute
impossibility. When we meet again, I can give you verbally the
details, which it would be too long and useless to write. Once
more, it is necessary that you should be served with intelligence
and dignity, and you would not be served in that manner by
hazarding steps which must infallibly lead to an unfavourable
result. What I think of most, and what, with God's help, may
bring about "a turn in your situation," is the success of
"Lohengrin"; and if that is once well established, I shall
propose to their Highnesses to authorize me to write to you or to
let Herr von Zigesar write to you commissioning you to finish
your "Siegfried" as soon as possible, and sending you for that
purpose a suitable honorarium in advance, so that you may be able
to work for some six months at the completion of that opera free
from material care.

Speak to no one of this plan, which I hope to carry out in due
time.

Till then keep your head and your health in good condition, and
count entirely upon your sincerely devoted and affectionate
friend,

F. LISZT

Herr von Zigesar will write to you direct about the sale of the
libretto of "Lohengrin." The best thing would be if Brockhaus
would undertake the edition, and Z. has written to him on the
subject. You, on your part, might write to him to the same
effect, which would be a good beginning of the plan which I shall
submit to your ultimate decision. Yet another and quite different
question: Should you be inclined to undertake in connection with
"Alceste," "Orphee," "Armide," and "Iphigenia en Tauride," by
Gluck, a similar task to that which you have already performed
for "Iphigenie en Aulide," and what sum would you expect by way
of honorarium? Write to me on this subject when you have time;
there is no hurry about it, but perhaps I might be able to
suggest the idea of such a commission to the proper person.



35.

MY DEAR LISZT,

I must say, You are a friend. Let me say no more to you, for
although I always recognized in friendship between men the
noblest and highest human relation, it was you who embodied this
idea in its fullest reality by letting me no longer imagine, but
feel and grasp, what a friend is.

I do not thank you, for you alone have the power to thank
yourself by your joy in being what you are. It is noble to have a
friend, but still nobler to be a friend.

Having found you, I can put up with my banishment from Germany,
and I must look upon it almost as fortunate, for I could not have
possibly been of such use to myself in Germany as you can be. But
then I wanted you of all others. I cannot write your praise, but
when we meet I will tell it you. Kindly and considerately as you
treat me, you may feel sure that I as fully understand and
appreciate the manner of your care of me. I know that you must
act as you act, and not otherwise; and for the manner of your
taking care of me I am especially thankful. One thing gives me
anxiety: you forget yourself over me, and I cannot replace what
you lose of yourself in this. Consider this well.

Your letter has in many respects made a great impression on me. I
have convictions which perhaps you will never share, but which
you will not think it necessary to combat when I tell you that
they in no manner interfere with my artistic activity. I have
felt the pulse of our modern art, and know that it must die, but
this does not make me melancholy, but rather joyful, because I
know that not art, but only our art, standing as it does outside
of real existence, must perish, while the true, imperishable,
ever-new art has still to be born. The monumental character of
our art will disappear; the clinging and sticking to the past,
the selfish care for continuity and possible immortality, we
shall cast off; the Past will be Past, the Future will be Future,
to us, and we shall live and create only in the Today, in the
full Present. Remember that I used to call you happy in your
particular art, because you were an immediate artist, actually
present, and appealing to the senses at every moment. That you
could do so only by means of an instrument was not your fault,
but that of the inevitable conditions of our time, which reduces
the individual man wholly to himself, and in which association,
enabling the single artist to expend his power in the common and
immediately present work of art, is an impossible thing. It was
not my purpose to flatter you. I only expressed half consciously
my knowledge that the representative alone is the true artist.
Our creations as poets and composers are in reality volition, not
power; representation only is power--art. [Footnote: In the
German original there is here a play upon the word "konnen" and
its derivative, "kunst," which cannot be translated.] Believe me,
I should be ten times happier if I were a dramatic representative
instead of a dramatic poet and composer. With this conviction
which I have gained, I am naturally not desirous to create works
for which I should have to resign a life in the present in order
to give them some flattering, fictitious immortality. What cannot
be made true today will remain untrue in the future. The vain
desire of creating beyond the present for the future I abandon,
but if I am to create for the present, that present must appear
to me in a less disgusting form than it actually does. I renounce
fame, and more especially the ridiculous spectre of posthumous
fame, because I love my fellow-men too much to condemn them, for
the sake of my vanity, to the poverty in which alone the
posthumous fame of dead people finds its nourishment.

As things are, I am incited to artistic creativeness, not by
ambition, but by the desire to hold communion with my friends and
the wish to give them joy; where I know this desire and this wish
to be satisfied I am happy and perfectly content. If you in
little Weimar give my "Lohengrin" with zeal and love, joy and
success, and were it only for the two performances of which you
write, I shall be happy in the thought that my purpose has been
perfectly accomplished, that my anxiety about this work is wholly
at an end, and that now I may begin another effort at offering
something new in a similar manner. Judge then, can you blame my
conviction which rids me of all egoism, of all the small passions
of ambition? Surely not. Ah, that I might be able to communicate
to all of you some of the blissful strength of my convictions!

Hear now what effect your letter has had upon me.

Last May I sent the poem of my "Siegfried" to a book-seller to be
published, such as it is. In a short preface I explained that the
completion and the performance of my work were beyond hope, and
that I therefore communicated my intention to my friends. In
fact, I shall not compose my "Siegfried" on the mere chance for
the reasons I have just told you. Now, you offer to me the
artistic association which might bring "Siegfried" to light. I
demand representatives of heroes such as our stage has not yet
seen; where are they to come from? Not from the air, but from the
earth, for I believe you are in a good way to make them grow from
the earth by dint of your inspiring care. Although our theatrical
muddle is hopelessly confused, the best soil for all art is still
to be found in our foolish actors and singers; their nature, if
they have kept their hearts at all, is incorruptible; by means of
enthusiasm you can make anything of them. Well then, as soon as
you have produced Lohengrin to your own satisfaction I shall also
produce my "Siegfried," but only for you and for Weimar. Two days
ago I should not have believed that I should come to this
resolution; I owe it to you.

My dear Liszt, from what I have told you you will see that,
according to my view of the thing, your amiable anxiety for the
further promulgation of my "Lohengrin" has my sympathy almost
alone on account of its material advantages--for I must live--but
not with a view to my fame. I might have the desire to
communicate myself to a larger circle, but is he likely to be
listened to who intrudes? I cannot and will not intrude. You
surely have done enough to attract the attention of people
towards me; shall I too buttonhole them and ask them for a
hearing? Dear friend, these people are flabby and cowardly; they
have no heart. Leave them alone! If I am to succeed, it must be
through people who care about the matter. Where I must offer
myself I lose all my power. How can I care about a "Leipsic
representation"? It would have to be a good representation, and
how is that to be achieved unless some one like you undertook the
thing? Do not forget that Weimar also would not exist for me if
you did not happen to exist in Weimar. Good Lord! All depends
upon one man in our days; the rest must be dragged along anyhow;
nothing will go of itself. Even money considerations could not
determine me to arrange performances which would of necessity be
bad. Lord knows, although I have no money, I do not trouble about
it excessively, for I have a notion that somehow I shall not
starve. Just when I have nothing at all something always turns
up, as, for instance, your last news, and then I feel suddenly
calm and free of care. You see, dear friend, as long as you
remain true to me I do not despair. As to your excellent proposal
with regard to the treatment of Gluck's operas, which has given
me great pleasure, I shall soon write more definitely.

Although I have many more things to tell you, I think it better
to conclude on this page. You say so many things to me that I
become quite confused when I have to think of a detailed answer.
I know that I am safe with you as a child in its mother's bosom.
What more is required beyond gratitude and love? Farewell, and
let me press you to my heart.

Your friend, happy through you,

RICHARD WAGNER

Herr von Zigesar will have a letter very soon; for the present I
send him my best thanks for his valuable letter and his touching
sympathy with my work. One more thing: a certain conductor, Abt,
from this place will be at Weimar on August 28th to hear
"Lohengrin." Kindly reserve a seat for him.

My best remembrances to Genast and my brave singers. I rejoice
when I think of these good people. A whole family, Ritter by
name, will come from Dresden to Switzerland next year, to settle
near me; they also will be at Weimar. I am writing to Uhlig.



36.

DEAR FRIEND,

I have been asked to forward to you the enclosed bill for one
hundred thalers. Do not thank me, and do not thank Herr von
Zigesar either, who has signed the bill. You will perhaps
remember that about a year ago I sent you the same amount; this
time it comes again from the same source, which, for official
reasons, desires to remain hidden.

We float in the full ether of your "Lohengrin." I flatter myself
that we shall succeed in giving it according to your intentions.
We rehearse every day for two or three hours, and the solo parts
as well as the strings are in tolerable order. Tomorrow and
afterwards I shall separately rehearse the wind, which will be
complete, in accordance with the demands of your score. We have
ordered a bass clarinet, which will be excellently played by Herr
Wahlbrul. Our violoncellos will be strengthened by the arrival
from Paris of Cossmann, who will join our orchestra on August
15th. This is an excellent acquisition, which will, I hope, be
followed by some others of the same sort, etc., etc. In short,
all that it is humanly possible to do in Weimar in the year of
grace 1850, you may be sure, will be done for your "Lohengrin,"
which, in spite of much stupid talk, some false anxiety, and some
too real impediments, will, you may take my promise, be very
decently performed on the 28th inst., after which I have invited
myself to supper at Zigesar's, who is fire and flame for
Lohengrin. When he sends you your honorarium of from twenty-five
to thirty louis d'or, towards the end of the month, kindly write
to him a fairly long and friendly letter, for he fully shares my
sympathy and admiration for your genius, and is the only person
who can assist me in giving external significance to those
sentiments. At his last stay in Berlin he spoke of Tannhauser to
the King and the Prince of Prussia, so as to let them know in
Berlin how the matter stands. Two or three days later please
write also a few lines to Genast, who has behaved extremely well
in all the transactions preceding "Lohengrin," and who will
zealously execute your indications as to the mise-en-scene.

If you will do me a service, dear friend, send me, if possible by
return of post, some metronomical indications for the
introduction and several other important pieces, the duet between
Lohengrin and Elsa in the third act amongst others. I believe I
am not mistaken as to your wishes and intentions, but should
still prefer to have conviction in figures as to this matter.

There will be no cut, no curtailment, in your score, and I shall
do my best to have no lack of < fp. ffp. >, and especially of . .
.--, which is the most difficult thing for the string
instruments.

Farewell, dear friend! I think your work is sublime, and am your
sincerely devoted

F. LISZT



37.

MY DEAREST FRIEND,

Many thanks for your letter received yesterday; also convey my
cordial thanks to the donor. Dear friend, we all know who it is.
Why this official secrecy? I must confess that formerly I thought
it more desirable to have an honorarium for my version of
"Iphigenia in Aulis" than a present, but on second consideration
I find that such an honorarium would have been little more than a
present. Who knows better than myself that in our dear world of
the Mine and Thine, of work and payment, I am a pure luxury? He
who gives anything to me receives something quite superfluous and
unnecessary in return. What do you think, who have taken such
infinite pains to dispose of my works? Much as I think of my
"Lohengrin," which you are bringing to light, I think as much and
almost more of you and your terrible exertions. I know what these
exertions are. When I saw you conduct a rehearsal of
"Tannhauser," I knew at once what you were to me. What curious
creatures we are! We can be happy only by the complete
annihilation of our whole being; to be happy means with us to
lose consciousness of ourselves. Stupid as it may sound, I call
to you, Reserve yourself--as much as you can.

The arrival of a letter from you is always a feast to me, and all
my friends are invited to it. If possible, let me have a few
lines now and then as to the success of the rehearsals. I control
myself violently, and let no one see it, but to you I must
confess my sorrow is great not to hear my work under your
direction. But I have to bear so many things, and shall bear this
also. I think of myself as if I were dead. Whenever I have news
of you, I am filled with new desire to commence some large
artistic work; for literary work I have no longer any great
inclination. Upon the whole, I preach to deaf ears; only he whom
artistic experience has taught to find the right thing can
understand what I mean; so it is better that every one should
arrive by the aid of experience and do for himself what he can
do. But I still feel enthusiasm for the work of art itself; the
music of my Siegfried vibrates through all my nerves; it all
depends upon a favourable mood, and that you, dear friend, will
procure for me.

To Zigesar I shall write according to your wish. I have every
reason to feel friendly towards him, and do so in very deed. To
Genast I shall write tomorrow.

Another young friend of mine goes specially from Zurich to Weimar
for the two performances of my opera; I shall give him a few
lines of introduction to you. For the present I only ask you to
get him a good seat for the two performances; please do not
forget it. For a Herr Abt, from here, I asked the same favour
last time.

You forgot in your last letter to reply as to the book of words.
I wrote to you that I should like to see a proof; it would be too
late now, and therefore useless, to repeat that wish; therefore I
ask you to see that the proof is read as carefully as possible.
Perhaps Professor Wolff, whom I greet cordially a thousand times,
would be kind enough to correct a proof. This reminds me that I
have corrected a mistake in the manuscript of the libretto, but
not in the score. In the last words of Lohengrin's leave-taking
of Elsa it should be, instead of--

"mein zurnt der Gral wenn ich noch bleib," "mir zurnt," etc.,
etc.

You ask me also for a few metronomical indications of the tempo.
I consider this quite unnecessary, because I rely in all things
on your artistic sympathy so thoroughly as to know that you need
only be in a good humour with my work to find out the right thing
everywhere; for the right thing consists in this only: that the
effect corresponds with the intention. But, as you wish it, I
send you the following, in confirmation, no doubt, of your own
views:-

Instrumental Introduction.

[score excerpt]

(The triplets molto moderato.)

Act I., Scene 2, Elsa's Song (page 35).

[score excerpt]

Later on--e.g., in the finale--this theme of course grows
quicker.

[score excerpt]

(At the arrival of Lohengrin (A major) perhaps a little piu
moderato.) The slow movement in E flat 3-4 (ensemble) in the
finale of the first act you will, I presume, not take too slow,
but with solemn emotion. The last bar of the orchestral ritornel
must be played a good deal ritardando, so as to make the tempo of
this postlude even more majestic where the trumpets enter, by
which means also the violins will be enabled to bring out the
lively staccato figures strongly and clearly.

Act II., Scene I.

[score excerpt]

Scene 3 (page 197).

[score excerpt]

Act III., Scene 2 (page 291).

[score excerpt]

Elsa: Fuhl' ich zu Dir so susz mein Herz entbrennen.

Grand and perfect repose is here the chief thing. In singing the
passage, I found that I paused a little on the second and fourth
part of the bar, but of course in such a manner as to be scarcely
perceptible in a rhythmical sense, only as a matter of
expression.

[score excerpt]

Lohengrin: Ath-mest Du nicht mit mir die suss-en. Page 39.

[score excerpt]

Dein Lie-ben muss mir hoch ent - gel - - ten.

(Here the tempo becomes a little slower.)

But enough, perhaps too much already. With all these indications,
I appear mean before you. You will do it all right, perhaps
better than I should. Only see that we soon meet again; I long to
be with you. Or do you find me too effusive? No! Farewell, my
dear, good Liszt. Write to me soon.

Yours,

RICHARD WAGNER.

ZURICH, August 16th, 1850. (Abendstern-Enge, Zurich.)



38.

At this moment, dearest friend, after having closed the letter
already, I begin to feel a doubt whether you have received my
last letter, which I sent you about eighteen days ago. I am
uncertain because you make no mention of its contents, which
were--

1. A letter from me to Zigesar.

2. One bar of music (full score), which was to be added at the
end of Lohengrin's tale in Act III. (the cut which I want in this
scene--omission of the second part of Lohengrin's tale--you also
do not mention; I assume that you agree).

3. My asking you to send me a proof of the libretto (now too
late).

If you have not received this letter, kindly let me know at once,
because in that case I should like to send you the aforementioned
additional bar, which might still arrive in time for the general
rehearsal.

R. W.



39.

DEAR LISZT,

The bearer of this greeting is my young friend Karl Ritter, whose
visit I announced to you in my last letter. His family has
migrated from Russia, where they formerly lived, to Dresden; and
their intention is later on to settle in Switzerland near me.
Karl has preceded them in any case, and will stay for the summer
with me. He is thoroughly cultured and full of talent, and his
musical gift especially is considerable. He was unable to resist
the desire to hear my Lohengrin, the score of which he knows
thoroughly, under your direction; and therefore he has journeyed
to Weimar, to return to me after the second representation. I
need scarcely ask you to be kind to him, for I know that it is
your nature to be amiable. Please take him with you to the
general rehearsal and see that he gets a good place at the
performances, which his family from Dresden also will attend. I
thank you in advance for this kindness.

I shall spend the day and evening of the 28th with my wife alone
on the Righi. This little trip to the Alps, which has been made
possible by your kindly care, will, I hope, benefit my bodily and
mental condition, especially in these days, when I am naturally
moved by many feelings. Farewell, dear friend. Write soon, and be
always sure of my most devoted love.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER.

ZURICH, August 22nd, 1850.



40.

DEAREST FRIEND,

Your "Lohengrin" is a sublime work from one end to the other. The
tears rose from my heart in more than one place. The whole opera
being one indivisible wonder, I cannot stop to point out any
particular passage, combination, or effect. A pious ecclesiastic
once underlined word for word the whole "Imitatio Christi;" in
the same way I might underline your "Lohengrin" note for note. In
that case, however, I should like to begin at the end; that is,
at the duet between Elsa and Lohengrin in the third act, which to
my thinking is the acme of the beautiful and true in art.

Our first representation was, comparatively speaking,
satisfactory. Herr von B., who will see you soon, will bring you
very accurate news. The second performance cannot take place
before ten or twelve days. The court and the few intelligent
persons in Weymar are full of sympathy and admiration for your
work; and as to the public at large, they will think themselves
in honour bound to admire and applaud what they cannot
understand. As soon as I have a little rest I shall begin the
article which will probably appear in the "Debats"; in the
meantime Raff, about whom B. will speak to you, will write two
notices in the journal of Brockhaus and in the "Leipzig
Illustrirte Zeitung". Uhlig will look after Brendel's paper, etc.

If you have a moment, do not forget to write to Genast, who has
very warmly interested himself in the success of "Lohengrin". You
may be quite assured of the fate of the masterpiece in Weymar,
which is, no doubt, a little surprised at being able to produce
such things. Before the end of the winter "Lohengrin" will
certainly become a "draw."

When shall we have "Siegfried"? Write to me soon, and always
count on your devoted friend and servant,

F. LISZT.

WEYMAR, September 2nd.



41.

DEAR FRIEND,

I can no longer delay writing to you, although I should have
preferred to wait for another letter from you, so as to answer
any possible questions of yours. As far as I can at present form
an opinion of the character of the "Lohengrin" performance at
Weimar from the accounts that have reached me, there is one thing
that stands forth in the surest and most indubitable manner,
viz., your unprecedented efforts and sacrifices in favour of my
work, your touching love for me, and your marvelous faculty of
making the impossible possible. I can see after the event quite
clearly what a gigantic task you have undertaken and performed.
How can I ever reward you? I should scarcely have anything to
communicate to you beyond these exclamations of gratitude if I
had not discovered in Herr von Zigesar's letter (received the day
before yesterday, together with the honorarium) a certain
disappointment--the disappointment involuntarily expressed by one
who does not see his warmest zeal for a beloved cause crowned by
the desired success, and who therefore assumes a certain pensive
and doubtful attitude. Zigesar is doubtful whether the success of
my opera is certain; he professes the warmest desire to work for
that certainty with all his might, but appears to hesitate as to
the best means for the purpose. Knowing that your zeal in the
same cause is more active and energetic than that of any one
else, I must turn to you alone in considering the means which may
bring about our common desire.

So much is certain: that the performance has caused fatigue by
the length of its duration. I confess I was horrorstruck when I
heard that the opera had lasted until close upon eleven at night.
When I had finished the opera, I timed it exactly, and according
to my calculation the first act would last not much over an hour,
the second an hour and a quarter, the third again a little more
than an hour, so that, counting the entr'actes, I calculated the
duration of the opera from six o'clock to a quarter to ten at the
latest. I should have been doubtful whether you had taken the
tempi according to my calculation if musical friends, well
acquainted with the opera, had not assured me particularly that
you had taken the tempi throughout as they knew them from me, and
now and then rather a little quicker than slower. I must
therefore assume that the dragging took place where you, as
conductor, lost your immediate power, viz., in the recitatives. I
have been assured that the recitatives were not attacked by the
singers as I had performed them to my friends at the piano. Allow
me to explain myself a little more particularly, and forgive my
mistake of not having done so before.

Owing to the deplorable fact that at our German theatres scarcely
anything but operas translated from a foreign language is given,
our dramatic singers have been most thoroughly demoralized. The
translations of French and Italian operas are generally made by
blunderers, or at least scarcely ever by people who would be able
to effect between the music and the translation a similar
concordance to that which existed in the original version, as,
for example, I tried to do in the most important parts of Gluck's
"Iphigenia". The result has been in the course of time that the
singers got into the way of neglecting altogether the connection
between word and tone, of pronouncing an unimportant syllable to
an accentuated note of the melody, and of putting the important
word to a weak part of the bar. In this way they gradually became
accustomed to the most absolute nonsense, to such an extent that
it was frequently quite indifferent whether they pronounced at
all or not. It is most amusing to hear German critics boast that
only Germans understand dramatic music, while experience teaches
that every bad Italian singer in the worst Italian opera declaims
more naturally and expressively than the best Germans can do. The
recitative has fared worst; in it singers have become accustomed
to see only a certain conventional sequence of tonal phrases,
which they can pull about and draw out according to their sweet
will. When in opera the recitative commences, it means to them,
"The Lord be praised, here is an end to that cursed tempo, which
off and on compels us to a kind of rational rendering; we can now
float about in all directions, dwell on any note we like until
the prompter has supplied us with the next phrase; the conductor
has now no power over us, and we can take revenge for his
pretensions by commanding him to give us the beat when it suits
us," etc. Although perhaps not all singers are conscious of this
privilege of their genius, they, as a rule, involuntarily adopt
this free-and-easy method, which confirms them in a certain
natural laziness and flabbiness. A composer writing for German
singers has therefore to take every care in opposing an artistic
necessity to this lazy thoughtlessness. Nowhere in the score of
my "Lohengrin" have I written above a vocal phrase the word
"recitative;" the singers ought not to know that there are any
recitatives in it; on the other hand, I have been intent upon
weighing and indicating the verbal emphasis of speech so surely
and so distinctly that the singers need only sing the notes,
exactly according to their value in the given tempo, in order to
get purely by that means the declamatory expression. I therefore
request the singers particularly to sing all declamatory passages
in my operas at first in strict tempo, as they are written. By
pronouncing them throughout vividly and distinctly much is
gained. If, proceeding from this basis with reasonable liberty
and accelerating rather than holding back, they manage to
obliterate the painful effect of the tempo altogether, and
produce an emotional and poetic mode of speech, then all is
gained.

Dingelstedt's sympathetic and clever notice of the performance of
my "Lohengrin" has impressed me very much. He owns that
previously he had known nothing by me, and chiefly attributes to
this circumstance a certain puzzled feeling which the first
performance of "Lohengrin" has produced in him. That puzzled
feeling he transfers to the character of the work itself,
speaking of numberless intentions crossing each other, with which
he supplies me, but never guessing, as far as I can see, the only
intention which guided me--I mean the simple and bare intention
of the drama. He speaks of the impression which flutes, violins,
kettledrums, and trumpets made on him, but nowhere of the
dramatic representatives in whose stead, as he puts it, those
instruments spoke. From this I conclude that at the performance
the purely musical execution preponderated, that the orchestra--
as connoisseurs have also told me--was excellent, and that friend
Liszt, together with all that immediately depended on him, was
the real hero of the performance. If we consider honestly and
unselfishly the essence of music, we must own that it is in large
measure a means to an end, that end being in rational opera the
drama, which is most emphatically placed in the hands of the
representatives on the stage. That these representatives
disappeared for Dingelstedt, that in their stead he only heard
the utterance of orchestral instruments, grieves me, for I see
that, as regards fire and expression, the singers remained behind
the support of the orchestra. I own that a singer supported by
the orchestra in such a manner as is here the case must be of the
very highest and best quality, and I fully believe that such
singers could not easily be found in Weimar, and in Germany
generally. But what is really the essential and principal thing
here? Is it voice only? Surely not. It is life and fire, and in
addition to that earnest endeavour and a strong and powerful
will. In Dresden I made the experience with our best singers
that, although they had the most laudable intentions and the
greatest love for their tasks, they were unable to master a
certain flabby laziness, which in our actual artistic muddle
appears to be the characteristic trait of all our operatic
heroes. I there caused all the remarks in the score of
"Tannhauser" to be inserted in the parts of the singers with the
utmost accuracy--I mean the remarks which had reference to the
meaning of the situation and the dramatic action. At the
performance I perceived with dismay that all these had remained
unnoticed, and I had to see--imagine my horror!--for example,
that my Tannhauser in the contest of the singers shouted the hymn
of Venus--

"Wer dich mit Gluth in seine Arme geschlossen, Was Liebe ist,
weiss der, nur der allein!"

at Elizabeth, the chastest of virgins, before a whole assembly of
people. The only possible result could be that the public was, to
say the least, confounded, and did not know what to make of it.
Indeed, I heard at Dresden that the public became acquainted with
the dramatic meaning of the opera only by reading the book in
extenso; in other words, they understood the performance by
disregarding the visible performance and making additions from
their own imagination. Are your singers at Weimar more advanced
than our famous people of Dresden? I think not. Probably they
also will, in the first instance, be satisfied with getting over
the difficulty of hitting the notes and committing their parts to
memory, and on the stage they will at best take notice only of
what the stage-manager tells them in the most general way.
Genast, however, was always one of those artists who do not rely
upon the stage-manager for the comprehension of their parts; he
who has heard him and seen him knows so much. Being now a stage-
manager himself, he probably thinks it unnecessary to play for
the singers the schoolmaster, whom he, as a singer, never wanted.
In this, however, he is mistaken; the present generation has run
wild from its birth. I also can understand too well that, in his
friendly zeal for my work, he remained entirely on the proper
standpoint of the stage-manager, who arranges things in a general
way, and justly leaves it to the individual actors to find out
for themselves what concerns them only. In spite of this, I ask
him now to interfere even there, where the power and the natural
activity of the stage-manager ceases; let him be the trustee of
infant actors. At the rehearsal of my "Tannhauser" in Weimar I
had occasion to point out the neglect of some scenic indications
on the part of individual singers. Elizabeth, for example, during
the postlude of the duet with Tannhauser in the second act, has
to justify the re-entry of the tender theme in the clarinet in
slower tempo by looking--as is indicated in the score--after
Tannhauser in the court of the castle and by beckoning to him. By
neglecting this and merely standing in front, waiting for the
conclusion of the music, she naturally produces an unbearable
feeling of tedium. Every bar of dramatic music is justified only
by the fact that it explains something in the action or in the
character of the actor. That reminiscence of the clarinet theme
is not there for its own sake as a purely musical effect, which
Elizabeth might have to accompany by her action, but the beckoned
greeting of Elizabeth is the chief thing I had in my eye, and
that reminiscence I selected in order to accompany suitably this
action of Elizabeth. The relations of music and action must
therefore be deplorably perverted where, as in this instance, the
principal thing--i.e., the dramatic motive--is left out, while
the lesser thing--i.e., the accompaniment of that motive--alone
remains. Of the performance of "Lohengrin" one fact has been
related to me which, although it may appear of little
consequence, must serve me to show how important, nay decisive,
for a proper understanding such individual cases may be.

When I conceived and wrote the second act, it had not escaped me
how important it would be for the proper mood of the spectator to
show that Elsa's contentment at the last words of Lohengrin is
not really complete and genuine; the public should feel that Elsa
violently forces herself to conquer her doubt, and we should in
reality fear that, having once indulged in brooding over
Lohengrin, she will finally succumb and ask the prohibited
question. In the production of this general feeling of fear lies
the only necessity for a third act in which that fear is
realized; without it the opera should end here, for the chief
problem would not only have been mooted, but satisfactorily
solved. In order to produce this feeling very distinctly and
tangibly, I invented the following dramatic point: Elsa is led by
Lohengrin up the steps on the minster; on the topmost step she
looks downwards with timid apprehension; her eye involuntarily
seeks Frederick, of whom she is still thinking; at that moment
her glance falls on Ortrud, who stands below, and raises her hand
in a threatening manner. At this moment I introduce in the
orchestra in F minor ff. the warning of Lohengrin, the
significance of which has by this time been distinctly impressed
upon us, and which, accompanied by Ortrud's impressive gesture,
here indicates with absolute certainty, "Whatever happens, you
will disobey the command in spite of all." Elsa then turns away
in terror, and only when the king, after this interruption, once
more proceeds towards the entrance of the minster with the bridal
pair, does the curtain drop. What a pity then that that dramatic
point was not made on the stage, and that the curtain dropped
before the entry of the reminiscence in F minor! This not
unimportant mistake was, no doubt, caused by the probably
accidental neglect of a remark in the full score which, according
to my previous wish, should, like similar other remarks, have
been extracted for the benefit of the actors. I must fear that
several other things have also remained unnoticed and unexecuted,
and nothing confirms me so much in this fear as the account of
Dingelstedt, who, in spite of his unmistakable goodwill, has
evidently not taken in my opera because of the music.

Dearest Liszt, was I right when in the preface of my "Kunstwerk
der Zukunft" I wrote that not the individual, but the community
alone, could create genuine works of art? You have done the
impossible, but, believe me, all must nowadays do the impossible
in order to achieve what is really possible. What delights me
more than all is to hear that you have not lost courage, and are
going to try everything in order to support the opera, in spite
of a certain disappointment around you, and even to put it on its
legs. To assist you in this most laudable zeal I give you the
following advice: Let Genast, whom I cordially thank for his
friendship, before the resumption of "Lohengrin", call the whole
personnel to a reading rehearsal; let the singers read their
parts in connection, distinctly and expressively, from the
printed libretto, in which there are unfortunately many
misprints. Let Genast take the score, and from the remarks
therein inserted explain to the singers the meaning of the
situations and their connection with the music bar by bar. The
devil must be in it if the matter could not then be put right,
provided the intentions of the actors are good. Once more, let
Genast go beyond his position as stage-manager, which, no doubt,
he fills as well as any one, and let him become the guardian of
the infants and the neglected.

By these words I by no means wish to express a definite doubt as
to your singers in general or their achievements in this
particular case. The fact that in a purely musical sense they
took such care of their parts that you ventured with them upon
the performance of this enormously difficult, because unfamiliar
music is an excellent testimony in their favour. In the above I
asked them for something which perhaps they have never been asked
for before. I hope Genast will find it worth his while to explain
this most specially to them, and that he will succeed in making
them do justice to my demand. In that case he may boast of having
been the chief participant in a revolution which will lift our
theatrical routine out of its grooves.

The representative of Lohengrin alone appears, according to all
accounts, really incapable. Would it not be possible to make in
this instance a change of persons? To my mind everybody ought to
be glad when Lohengrin enters, instead of which it appears that
people were more pleased when he left the stage. At this moment I
receive your letter, assuring me of your joy and friendship. What
good spirits you are in!

I will close this long letter, which must have bored you very
much, by comprising all the single points I have mentioned to you
in a final and weighty bundle of prayers.

1. Arrange by the intervention of Genast that before the second
performance the singers have another rehearsal according to the
above indications. Let no scenic remark remain unnoticed.

2. Insist firmly and sharply that the singers perform in decisive
and lively tempo what they take to be recitatives in my opera. By
this means the duration of the opera will, according to my
experience, be shortened by nearly an hour.

3. Further, I desire that, with the exception of the second part
of Lohengrin's tale, which I determined from the beginning to
cut, my opera should be given as it is, without any omissions.

If cuts are made, the chain of comprehension will be torn
asunder, and my style, which the public are only just beginning
to take in, so far from being made more accessible, will be
further removed from the public and the actors. To capitulate to
the enemy is not to conquer; the enemy himself must surrender;
and that enemy is the laziness and flabbiness of our actors, who
must be forcibly driven to feel and think. If I do not gain the
victory, and have to capitulate in spite of my powerful ally, I
shall go into no further battles. If my "Lohengrin" can be
preserved only by tearing its well-calculated and artistic
context to pieces, in other words if it has to be cut owing to
the laziness of the actors, I shall abandon opera altogether.
Weimar in that case will have no more interest for me, and I
shall have written my last opera. With you, dear Liszt, who have
so bravely accepted my battle, it lies to gain a complete victory
for me. I do not know what more I could say; to you I have said
enough. To Genast, for whom also this letter is intended, I shall
write separately as soon as I know that my demand has not
offended him. To Zigesar I write tomorrow.

In the meantime I post this letter in order not to incur the
reproach of delay.

Farewell, then, dearest, splendid friend. You are as good as
refreshing summer rain. Farewell. Be thanked, and greet my
friends.

Always your most obliged

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, September 8th, 1850

One thing more: as you have no organ and no harmonium
(physharmonika), I want you to let the short organ-passage at the
end of the second act be played by wind instruments behind the
scenes.

Lohengrin should sing the words "Heil dir, Elsa! nun lass vor
Gott uns gehen!" with tender emotion.



42.

(TO HERR VON ZIGESAR.)

MOST ESTIMABLE HERR INTENDANT,

On my return from a little trip to the Alps, I find the copies of
the libretto of "Lohengrin" which you have kindly sent to me, and
have every reason to rejoice heartily at the remarkable care with
which you have had it done. This is another ocular proof of the
sympathy with which you have gone to work in everything
concerning my last opera, and I must not omit to express my
warmest thanks to you. Your last letter, in which you kindly
enclosed the honorarium for my "Lohengrin," tells me of the
success of all your extraordinary exertions for the performance
of the opera, and I see with regret from your friendly
communication that satisfaction, in the measure desired by you,
has not been the result, and that a permanent success appears
doubtful to you. As with this statement you combine no objection
to the work itself, but, on the contrary, assure me that to the
best of your intention and power you will try to secure that
desired success for my opera, I feel bound to add to the
expression of my gratitude for your kind feeling my opinion as to
how our mutual wishes might be realized.

Most esteemed Herr Intendant, with full knowledge of the matter
at stake, you have undertaken by its performance at your theatre
to give life to a dramatic work the essence of which is that it
is in all its parts a continuous whole, and not something
incongruous, made up of many different parts. The author of this
work does not wish to shine by the effect of single musical
pieces; music to him is altogether no more than the most exalted
and most comprehensive mode of expression of what he desired to
express--the drama. Even where music became a mere ornament I
remained conscious of having acted in accordance with a certain
artistic necessity, and each necessary effect was brought about
only by the fact that, like the link of a well-forged chain, it
derived its significance from the preceding links. If this chain
were torn asunder by the removal of the whole, or a half, or a
quarter of a link, the whole context would be torn along with it,
and my intention would be destroyed. You admitted to me yourself
that in certain cases about which at first you had doubts you had
been finally convinced of the necessity of this concatenation,
but the impression made upon you by the performance has again
renewed this doubt, to the extent, at least, that you think it
advisable, in consideration of the public, to consent to certain
omissions in my opera. Permit me to think a little better of the
public. An audience which assembles in a fair mood is satisfied
as soon as it distinctly understands what is going forward, and
it is a great mistake to think that a theatrical audience must
have a special knowledge of music in order to receive the right
impression of a musical drama. To this entirely erroneous opinion
we have been brought by the fact that in opera music has wrongly
been made the aim, while the drama was merely a means for the
display of the music. Music, on the contrary, should do no more
than contribute its full share towards making the drama clearly
and quickly comprehensible at every moment. While listening to a
good--that is, rational--opera, people should, so to speak, not
think of the music at all, but only feel it in an unconscious
manner, while their fullest sympathy should be wholly occupied by
the action represented. Every audience which has an uncorrupted
sense and a human heart is therefore welcome to me as long as I
may be certain that the dramatic action is made more immediately
comprehensible and moving by the music, instead of being hidden
by it. In this respect the performance of my "Lohengrin" at
Weimar does not as yet seem to have been adequate, in so far as
the purely musical part was much more perfect than the dramatic,
properly so called, and the fault I attribute solely to the
general state of our opera, which from the outset has the most
confusing and damaging influence on all our singers. If during
the performance of my "Lohengrin" the music only was noticed, yea
almost only the orchestra, you may be sure that the actors
remained far behind their task. Yesterday I wrote at length to my
incomparable friend Liszt about this, and explained to him my
views as to how the matter might be managed so as to place the
performance in the right light. If in future the so-called
recitatives are sung as I have asked Liszt to insist upon their
being sung, the halting and freezing impression of whole, long
passages will disappear, and the duration of the performance will
be considerably shortened. If cuts were resorted to, you would
gain comparatively little time, and would sacrifice to our modern
theatrical routine every possibility of thorough reform. I can
imagine, for instance, that the speeches of the king and the
herald may have made a fatiguing impression, but if this was the
case because the singers sang them in a lackadaisical, lazy, and
slovenly manner, without real utterance, is then the interest of
art benefited by curtailing or omitting these speeches? Surely
not. Art and artists will be equally benefited only if those
singers are earnestly requested to pronounce those speeches with
energy, fire, and determined expression. Where no effect is made
no impression can be produced, and where no impression is
produced people are bored; but is it right, in order to shorten
that boredom, to remove what with a proper expression would
produce the necessary effect? In that case it would be better to
drop the whole work, which, for want of proper expression, would
be in danger of failing to produce the necessary effect. For if
we yield in small and single things, if we make concessions to
laziness and incompetence, we may be sure that we shall soon be
obliged to do the same throughout; in other words, that we must
give up every attempt at making a work like the present succeed.
It appears to me preferable to find out with the utmost care
where the real cause of the existing evil lies, and then to
attack the enemy in his own camp with perseverance and power. You
will see from this, most esteemed Herr Intendant, how important
it is for me not to gain toleration for my Lohengrin by
accommodating it to existing evils, but to secure for it a
decisive success by making it conquer existing evils. Otherwise I
confess openly that the future chances of this opera would have
no value for me; in that case I should only regret the amount of
exertion, trouble, and sympathy which you have kindly wasted on
this work. Fame I do not seek, gain I had to renounce long ago,
and if now I have at last to experience that even my most
energetic friends and patrons think themselves obliged to make
concessions for my benefit where a real victory can alone be of
value, I shall lose every wish and every power to be further
active in my art. If you can keep my "Lohengrin" going only by
truncating its healthy organism, and not by operating to the best
of your power on the diseased organism of our truncated operatic
body, then I shall be cordially glad if you are rewarded for your
pains according to circumstances, but I must ask you not to be
angry with me if I look upon such a success with indifference.
What to you is a matter of benevolence towards me is for me,
unfortunately, a vital question of my whole mental existence in
art, to which my being clings with bleeding fibres.

May Heaven grant that you, highly esteemed sir and patron, will
take the contents and expression of these lines in good part, and
that you will not for a moment doubt that always and in all
circumstances I shall look upon you as one of the most
sympathetic phenomena that have entered my existence. In all
respects I owe you love and unbounded gratitude. If I should
never be able to show this to you, as from my whole heart I
desire, I ask you fervently to attribute it, not to the wish of
my inmost soul, but to the position which I, as an artist with a
passionate heart, must, according to my firm conviction, take
towards the state of deep depravity of our public art-life.

With the highest esteem and veneration, I remain yours
obediently,

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, September 9th, 1850



43.

DEAREST LISZT,

I must today write you a few additional lines with reference to
my recent long letter.

Karl Ritter arrived here last night from his journey; and from
his account I see that in my surmises as to certain points in the
performance of "Lohengrin," founded chiefly on some striking
remarks in Dingelstedt's notes, I have not hit the right thing.
Ritter tells me that, contrary to what I thought, you have kept
up the tempo of the recitatives according to my indications, and
that therefore the dreaded caprice of the singers, as far, at
least, as the tempo was concerned, had no license. For this also
I must thank you, but am a little perplexed as to the advice I
recently gave you. By keeping up the tempi of the recitatives I
had chiefly intended to shorten the duration of the performance,
but I see now that you had already done the right thing, and
therefore remain astounded at my own error as to the length of
the opera, which is certainly detrimental. My opinion is that if,
as I much desire, the higher context is not to be destroyed by
cuts, the public must be deceived as to the duration of the
performance by your making the singers pronounce the recitatives
as vividly and as speakingly as possible; it is quite possible
for them to sing them in the proper tempo without giving interest
to them by warmth and truth of declamation. Moreover, the
performance will, of its own accord, become more compact as time
goes on. I have made this experience at the performances of my
operas which I conducted myself, the first performances always
lasting a little longer than the subsequent ones, although
nothing had been cut in these. This will probably be the case
with the performance of "Lohengrin" in Weimar, which only now
that I have been able to ask about many difficult details I can
appreciate in its excellence and perfection as regards the
musical portion.

I now come to the principal thing. You cannot believe how
delighted I was to hear some particulars of your music to
"Prometheus." Our friend Uhlig, to whom I attribute excellent
judgment, sends me word that he values this single overture more
than the whole of Mendelssohn. My desire to make its acquaintance
is raised to the highest pitch. Dearest friend, will you be kind
enough to let me have a copy soon, if I ask you particularly? You
would please me immensely, and I already contemplate the
possibility of having it played to me at a concert here in
Zurich. Now and then I shall take an interest in the local
musical performances, and I promise you that your work will not
be heard otherwise than in the most adequate conditions that can
be obtained. Could I also have your overture to Tasso? When I
look upon your whole life and contemplate the energetic turn
which you have given to it of late years, when I further
anticipate your achievements, you may easily imagine how happy I
shall be to give my sincerest and most joyous sympathy to your
works. You extraordinary and amiable man, send me soon what I ask
you.

Enough for today.

I am always and wholly yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, September 11th, 1850



44.

DEAREST FRIEND,

The second performance of your masterpiece has answered my
expectations, and the third and fourth will bring home to every
one the opinion I expressed as soon as we began rehearsing
"Lohengrin," namely, that this work will confer on a public
making itself worthy of understanding and enjoying it more honour
than that public could confer upon the work by any amount of
applause.

"Perish all theatrical mud!" I exclaimed when we tried for the
first time the first scenes of "Lohengrin." "Perish all critical
mud and the routine of artists and the public!" I have added a
hundred times during the last six weeks. At last, and very much
at last, I have the satisfaction to be able to assure you very
positively that your work will be better executed and better
heard and understood from performance to performance. This last
point is, in my opinion, the most important of all, for it is not
only the singers and the orchestras that must be brought up to
the mark to serve as instruments in the dramatic revolution,
which you so eloquently describe in your letter to Zigesar, but
also, and before all, the public, which must be elevated to a
level where it becomes capable of associating itself by sympathy
and intelligent comprehension with conceptions of a higher order
than that of the lazy amusements with which it feeds its
imagination and sensibility at our theatres every day. This must
be done, if need be, by violence, for, as the Gospel tells us,
the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only those who use
violence will take it.

I fully understand the motive which has made you speak with
diplomatic reserve of the audiences of "Lohengrin" in your letter
to Zigesar, and I approve of it. At the same time, it is certain
that, in order to realize completely the drama which you
conceive, and of which you give us such magnificent examples in
"Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin," it is absolutely necessary to make
a breach in the old routine of criticism, the long ears and short
sight of "Philistia," as well as the stupid arrogance of that
self-sufficient fraction of the public which believes itself the
destined judge of works of art by dint of birthright.

The enemy to whom, as you, my great art-hero, rightly put it, one
should not capitulate--that enemy is not only in the throats of
the singers, but also very essentially in the lazy and at the
same time tyrannical habits of the hearers. On these as well as
on the others one must make an impression if necessary by a good
beating. This you understand better than I could tell you.

In accordance with your desire, we have at the second performance
of Lohengrin not omitted a single syllable, for after your letter
it would, in my opinion, have been a crime to venture upon the
slightest cut. As I took occasion to tell those of my friends who
were here on August 28th, the performance of your works, as long
as you entrust me with their absolute direction, is with me a
question of principle and of honour. In these two things one must
never make a concession; and, as far as I am personally
concerned, you may rest perfectly assured that I shall not fail
in anything which you have a right to expect from me. In spite of
this, both Herr von Zigesar and Genast feel bound, in the
interest of your work, to address you some observations, which I,
for my part, have declined to submit to you, although I think
them somewhat justified by the limits of our theatre and of our
public, which are as yet far behind my wishes and even my hopes.
If you think it advisable to agree to some cuts, kindly let me
know your resolution as to this subject. Whether you accept those
proposed by Genast, or whether you determine upon others, or
whether, which is probable, you prefer to keep your work such as
we have given it twice, I promise you on my honour that your wish
shall be strictly carried out, with all the respect and all the
submission which you have a right to demand by reason of your
genius and of your achievements.

Whatever determination you come to in this regard, be certain
that in all circumstances you will find in me zeal equal to my
admiration and my devotion.

Wholly yours,

F. LISZT.

September 16th, 1850.

P.S.--Remember me kindly to Herr Ritter. I am very thankful to
him for not having spoken too ill of our first performance of
"Lohengrin;" the second has been much more satisfactory, and the
third and fourth will no doubt be still more so. Herr Beck, who
takes the principal part, endeavours in the most laudable manner
not to be below the task allotted to him. What is more, he begins
to feel enthusiasm for his part and for the composer. If one
considers fairly the enormous difficulty of mounting such a work
at Weymar, I can tell you sincerely that there is no reason for
dissatisfaction with the result which has so far been attained,
and which beyond a doubt will go on improving with every
representation.

I do not know whether the sublimity of the work blinds me to the
imperfection of the execution, but I fancy that if you could be
present at one of our next representations you would not be too
hard upon us.



45.

DEAREST FRIEND,

In a week or so I shall send you a very long article of mine
about "Lohengrin." If personal reasons of your own do not prevent
it, it will appear in Paris in the course of October. You are
sufficiently acquainted with the habits of the Paris press to
know how reluctantly it admits the entire and absolute eulogium
of a work by a foreign composer, especially while he is still
living. In spite of this, I shall try to overcome this great
obstacle, for I make it a point of honour to publish my opinion
of your work; and if you were fairly satisfied with my article,
you might perhaps give me a pleasure which would not cost you
more than a day or two of tedium. This would be to make a
translation, revised, corrected, augmented, and authenticated,
which, by the help of your and my friends, could be inserted in
two or three numbers of the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung or the
journal of Brockhaus, signed with my name.

If you should prefer to have it printed separately as a little
pamphlet by Weber, of Leipzig, I should not object; and if you
would say a word to Weber, I feel convinced that he would
willingly undertake it. But before all you must be acquainted
with my article, and tell me very frankly whether or not you
would like to have it published in Germany. In France I will
manage it a little sooner or a little later, but in case of a
German publication I should make it an absolute condition that
you undertook the trouble of translating it and of having it
copied under your eyes, so that I should not be charged with the
blunders of the translator, etc., etc. You will see that the
style is carefully French, and it would therefore be very
important not to destroy the nuances of sentiment and thought in
their passage to another language.

Always and wholly yours,

F. LISZT.

WEYMAR, September 25th, 1850.



46.

DEAREST FRIEND,

I have little to tell you unless I write to you about all the
things which we two need scarcely discuss any more. After your
last letter, which has given me great and genuine joy, such as
few things could, we are almost so absolutely near each other on
the most important questions that we may truly say, we are one. I
only long for the pleasure of your company, for the delight of
being united with you for a season, so that we may mutually no
longer say, but do to each other what we cannot express in
writing. In fact, to do something is always better and leads to
the goal much quicker than the cleverest discussion. Cannot you
get free for a little time and have a look round Switzerland? or
cannot you at least send me your scores, for which I recently
asked you? You ignore my request in your letter; why is that?

I have again many things to think about--alas! to think about
only. I have once more arrived at a point where retreat is
impossible; I must think out my thoughts before becoming once
more a naive and confident artist, although I shall be that
again, and look forward with pleasure to reaping the richest
benefit. You lay stress in your letter upon the fact that the
enemy whom we have to fight is not only in the throats of our
singers, but in the lazy Philistinism of our public and in the
donkeydom of our critics. Dearest friend, I agree with you so
fully that I did not even mention it to you. What I object to are
the perverse demands which are made on the public. I will not
allow that the public is charged with want of artistic
intelligence, and that the salvation of art is expected from the
process of grafting artistic intelligence on the public from
above; ever since the existence of connoisseurs art has gone to
the devil. By drilling artistic intelligence into it we only make
the public perfectly stupid. What I said was this: that I wanted
nothing of the public beyond a healthy sense and a human heart.
This does not sound much, but it is so much that the whole world
would have to be turned upside down to bring it about. The noble-
minded, the refined, those who have the courage of their
feelings, believe themselves at the top of the tree; they are
mistaken! In our actual order of things the Philistine, the
vulgar, common, flabby, and at the same time cruel man of
routine, reigns supreme. He, and no one else, is the prop of
existing things, and against him we all fight in vain, however
noble our courage may be; for unfortunately all things are in
this slavery of leathern custom, and only fright and trouble of
all kinds can turn the Philistine into a man by thoroughly
upsetting him. Pending an entirely new order of things, we must,
dearest friend, be satisfied with ourselves and with those who,
like ourselves, know but one enemy--the Philistine. Let us show
each other what we can do, and let us feel highly rewarded if we
can give joy to each other. "A healthy sense and a human heart!"-
-we ask nothing more, and yet all, if we realize the bottomless
corruption of that sense, the wicked cowardliness of the heart of
the so-called public. Confess, a deluge would be necessary to
correct this little fault. To remedy these ills I fear our most
ardent endeavour will do nothing that is efficacious. All we can
do--while we exist, and with the best will in the world cannot
exist at any other time but the present--is to think of
preserving our dignity and freedom as artists and as men. Let us
show to one another in ourselves that there is worth in man.

In the same sense I was intent, in connection with my
"Lohengrin," upon considering only the thing in itself; that is,
its adequate embodiment on the part of the actors. Of the public
I thought only in so far as I contemplated the one possibility of
leading the half-unconscious, healthy sense of that public
towards the real kernel of the thing--the drama--by means of the
dramatic perfection of the performance. That otherwise this
kernel is overlooked by the most aesthetic and most intelligent
hearers I have unfortunately again been shown by the clearest
evidence, and I confess that in this respect Dingelstedt's
account of my opera is present to my mind, causing me deep grief.
You, best of friends, have taken such infinite care of me in
every respect that I can only sincerely regret that your efforts
are sometimes responded to in so perverse a manner. In
Dingelstedt's account I recognize two things: his friendly
disposition towards me, with which he has been inspired by you,
and his most absolute incapability, with all his aestheticism, of
conceiving the slightest notion of what had to be conceived. The
total confusion engendered in him by listening to my opera he
transfers with bold self-reliance to my intentions and to the
work itself. He, who apparently can see in opera nothing but
kettledrums, trombones, and double-basses, naturally in my opera
did not see the wood for the trees; but, being a clever and glib-
penned litterateur, he produces a witty and many-coloured set of
variorum notes which he could not have done better if it had been
his intention to make fun of me, and this stuff he sends to the
newspaper with the largest circulation in the German language. If
I cared in the least to be in a certain sense recognized, I
should have to perceive that Dingelstedt has thoroughly injured
me. I read in some papers notices of my opera, evidently founded
upon that of Dingelstedt, somewhat to this effect: "Wagner has
written another opera, in which he seems to have surpassed the
coarse noise of his 'Rienzi'," etc. I am grieved that this
happened in the same Allgemeine Zeitung where five years ago Dr.
Hermann Franck discoursed on my "Tannhauser" in an intelligent,
calm, and lucid manner. If it should interest you, please read
this article. It is printed in the A.A.Z., No. 311, November 7th,
1845. You can imagine how I must feel when I compare the two
articles.

If you have not given up the hope of being useful to me in wider
circles, I should make bold to ask you whether you could manage
to have another and more appropriate notice of my "Lohengrin"
inserted in the A.A.Z. It has, as I said before, the largest
circulation.

How glad, on the other hand, was I to see your indications and
hints worked up into an intelligent sketch by a Frenchman who is
so much further removed from me. This has been done by Nerval, in
the feuilleton of the Presse. Many mistakes occur, but that does
not matter. The man has formed for himself from your utterances a
picture of me which at least indicates clearly and distinctly my
intention. The most terrible of all things is a German aesthetic
litterateur.

But to return once more to you. I should like almost for your
sake to gain a widespread reputation. You blow up a hundred
mines, and wherever I look I come upon you and your more than
friendly care for me; it is touching, and almost without example.
Remember me very kindly to Herr Raff, and thank him most
cordially in my name. Some of my friends thought it would have
been better if he had spoken of my "faults as a man" rather than
of my "faults as a subject;" but that, surely, does not matter,
and every one must have understood it in that sense. A better
intention to serve me I can look for in none except you.

To Genast I wrote a few days ago. This nasty bargaining about
twopence-halfpenny in the matter of cuts is repulsive to me; but
Genast remains a fine, brave fellow.

Behold, my paper is at an end, and I have done nothing but
gabble. I have many and more important things to write to you
about. Lord, forgive me! I am not in a mood for it today. I shall
soon write again. My best greetings to Zigesar. Truly this warm,
true heart does me much good. Farewell for today, noblest and
best of men.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, ABENDSTERN, ENGE

October 2nd, 1850



47.

DEAR LISZT,

You make me blush! without a blush I can scarcely read what you
are going to tell the world of me; and now you want me to
interpret it. Only if you earnestly desire it will I grant your
prayer, a prayer which flatters me too much to call it a
"prayer." Would that I could be of use to you! My last letter
must have appeared dissonant to you. I do not know what moved me
to speak bitterly of newspaper notices. One reason, however, I
may tell you: many things have determined me at last to speak in
a literary way once more. I am occupied with a work the title of
which is to be "The Essence of Opera." In it I mean to speak
clearly and definitely about opera as a type of art, and to
indicate as plainly as possible what should be done to it in
order to develop the hidden germs to full bloom. I should have
liked to dedicate this book to you, because in it I announce the
salvation and justification of the musician qua musician. I
should do this if I did not think it better not to drag you into
this address to the musical world. In that manner I shall
preserve greater liberty to you. The book therefore shall be a
surprise to you. As in this book I intend to explain my view of
the essence of the musical drama, I can find nothing more
annoying than to see the most contradictory opinions of me spread
amongst the public by witty litterateurs. The world must take me
for a muddle-headed and false priest if I preach the drama in
words while it is said of my works that musical confusion and
noise reign in them. But enough of this.

Your letter to B.'s mother was another noble thing of yours. Best
thanks.

I once more go to battle with my deadly enemy the winter. I must
think a great deal of the preservation of my health, and before
the spring I cannot work at "Siegfried" with a will, but in the
summer it shall be ready. Let me soon hear something of your
works.

One word more in confidence: at the end of this month I shall
have spent all my money; Zigesar has sent me less than you made
me hope. Towards the new year I again hope for some assistance
from Frau R. in D., but that also is uncertain. Can you--but how
shall I express it? If you have to do something beneath your or
my dignity, you cannot; that I know. The rest will be all right.
God bless you. I think the devil will not get hold of me just
yet.

Farewell, best of men. Send me your scores. Farewell, and remain
kind to me.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, October 8th, 1850



48.

(TO THE PRINCESS WITTGENSTEIN.)

HIGHLY ESTEEMED MADAM,

Your kind letter has, as you may imagine, made a great
impression. I see, to my genuine joy, that I may count you
amongst the small number of the friends who by the weight of
their sympathy richly compensate me for the absence of popular
acclamation. That you have remained faithful to me is more
important to me than perhaps you know yourself. Accept my cordial
thanks for the friendship you have preserved for me.

You ask me about my "Wiland." I have more designs than I have the
power to execute. Therefore I want a helper, yea more than a
helper, an artistic bosom friend, who works in the same spirit,
and, I hope, better than I could work myself. I request you to
persuade Liszt to undertake the musical execution of "Wiland" in
my stead. The poem in its present condition, such as herewith I
send it to you, is the result of sorrowful and deeply emotional
enthusiasm, which has stirred me up to imaginings on which as an
artist I may, I think, congratulate myself. But it takes me back
to a time to which I do not want to be taken back. I cannot
finish the poem now, either in words or music. If later on I
could gain sufficient repose for the purpose, I should be afraid
of having cooled towards it. In consequence I have lately become
accustomed to the thought of giving up the poem altogether.

But if this "Wiland," when Liszt makes its first acquaintance,
should inspire him as I was once inspired by it, I ask him to
consider it as his property. The design is quite complete; all
that remains to be done is simple versification, which every
fairly skilful writer of verse might execute: Liszt will easily
find one. In the more important places, I have written the verses
myself. To do more is at present impossible to me; even the
copying out gave me much trouble.

I hope, dear madam, you will not think my poem unworthy of your
warm recommendation to the friend whom, as you tell me to my
great joy, you will soon make happy by calling your own.

With sincere thanks for your kindness, and with

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