1st of October 1874

Richard Wagner to Ludwig II.

My divinely-sent, 
beloved, 
adored friend! 

My Lord and most gracious King! 

The ray reached me again; the dove came down to strengthen my spirit! Yes, what your holy power of love protects thrives: this is the gratitude that I owe you! My life prospers – my work prospers, because all the hardships under which they are supposed to prosper dissolve before the power of your love into an easily dissipating web of illusion. – 

Thanks to the sweet answer to the tentative question as to whether it would seem worth reporting to you how the execution of the great undertaking is going, which owes its outcome and its revival to your grace! Delighted by your loving command, I first share my report with the following.

My king! It was only through your infinite kindness that I was able to place the necessary orders for the stage furnishings and decorations at the beginning of the second quarter of this year. Since I could only deal with artists who were employed abroad, I had to arrange a meeting between them and myself and my administrators, and this could only take place on the last day of April of this year. With this meeting and the consultations associated with it, I officially opened my new house, the gift of your generosity; I moved into it with my family that day and slept in it the first night after completing the contract. 

The result of these discussions was that from now on it would be impossible to deliver the necessary work for the next year and that only the year 1876 could be determined with certainty for the performances. Regarding the work itself, the following distribution took place: 

From the very beginning, my main helper and advisor for the entire practical part of the undertaking was the brilliant machinist Carl Brandt in Darmstadt; he helped me find the architect to carry out the extremely difficult building but was at a loss from the start to suggest the right man to produce the stage design, since these were truly artistic inventions in a new style, not a mere skilful demonstration of just theatre painting. A chance encounter led me to meet the right man. 

The painter J. Hoffmann in Vienna, although he had never been involved in set design before, designed and painted two sets for the opening of the new opera house in Vienna, namely the “Zauberflöte” and “Freischütz” (which were recognised as the most excellent by everyone), but has since withdrawn from the theatre. At the beginning of last year, I had asked him to draw up sketches for all parts of my work, which he had already completed in the autumn and shown to me. Not only I, but everyone – including the first persons to whom he had exhibited it in Vienna – were extremely pleased with his work: the most difficult task of all, the appearance of the gods’ castle Valhalla in “Rheingold”, we admired as a truly brilliant invention. 

However, this artist does not own a studio or any other assistants for set painting. Since he would have had to create everything from scratch for himself, we agreed with him to entrust the execution of the stage design under his supervision to the Brückner brothers, court theatre set painters in Coburg, to whom Brandt was able to give the most excellent testimony. They have sufficient studios and also have a temporary painting hall built by us near the festival theatre at their disposal for the execution of the inseparable large scenery.

They also came to that conference, and the accords (contracts) were now concluded with them and the engineer Brandt, which perhaps did not remain unknown to you due to the presentation of them to your royal court secretariat. According to this, the most difficult sets due to their scenic complexity are to be delivered for use on August 1st next year (1875), whereas the other part of them must have been available for complete disposal on site on May 1st, 1876.

Accordingly, I now drew up the following plan, that must inevitably be adhered to, for the dramatic and musical part of the performance: the singers to be selected by me in the course of this year 1874 should come together next year for the two months of July and August, to play the piano in the first month, in the second month, however, they have to study their parts on the stage equipped with the most important sets in order to get to know their tasks so precisely that they can immediately move on to the so-called dress rehearsals in the following year. 

I cannot list any singer who cannot absolutely make himself available to me for the two months mentioned in 1875 and finally for the three months of June, July and August 1876. Because in this year 1876 the full main rehearsals of all four evenings are to begin immediately; in the first two months I intend to train my staff with orchestra, machinery and lighting day by day to get to the point where I can now give the three promised complete performances in the month of August. 

These should now follow one another in the second, third and fourth weeks of the month, with the prelude: “Das Rheingold” being performed every Saturday and then the three main works being performed every following day. Each performance is scheduled to begin at 4 o’clock in the afternoon: the second act follows at 6 o’clock, the third at 8 o’clock, so that there is a significant break between each act, which allows the audience to stroll in the parks surrounding the theatre and take refreshments in the open air and in a charming area, in order to gather again, completely refreshed, in the auditorium, at the signal of the trumpets from the theatre,[1] with the same receptivity as in the first act. I think that the sunset before the last act will create a particularly sacred atmosphere.

These are the general features of the performance plan. What I was able to do to achieve this this past summer was to invite the singers I had to get to know better, depending on what their occupation allowed them to do at the time, to visit me in Bayreuth. What I found pleasing here was that everyone was happy to come; the more important artists drew my attention to others who were still unknown to me, which in turn prompted them to visit me as well. This is probably how the best dramatic singers in Germany presented themselves to me; I only had to ignore those who did not have enough vacation for the next few years: but all of them declared that they viewed their participation solely as a matter of honour and would refrain from any profit or compensation for guest appearances and the like. In this way I was able to fill almost all of the roles in my work excellently, whereby I was able to look not only at good vocal and dramatic talent, but especially at the figure. My gods, giants and heroes are all of excellent stature, so that at the local train station, whenever such a giant arrived, the answer was always: “Here comes another Nibelunge!” 

On the other hand, I was happy to find an actor in the singer Hill from Schwerin who was not only of outstanding importance in the dramatic sense, but also particularly suitable for Mime’s brother because of his compact figure, for the extremely difficult role of the passionately wild Alberich. For Mime, however, I turned to a member of the Munich Opera, my tried and tested “David” from the “Meistersinger”, Schlosser. 

Betz has already explained to me the whole tremendous role of Wotan to my true satisfaction: Hagen will be played incomparably by Scaria from Vienna. Niemann, who has put himself at my absolute disposal for several years in a truly touchingly remorseful manner, takes on the role of Siegmund, which was written just for him. There is no Siegfried in any of our theatres; I have to create it for myself, and in extreme need a good spirit assigned me the right material for this creation. A young Doctor of Laws in Pest, Mr Glatz, who has just graduated, was introduced to me last winter by my faithful Hans Richter. 

This beautiful youthful man, whose figure in Bayreuth was almost taken for His Majesty of Bavaria himself, has one of the strongest and noblest tenor voices I have ever heard: he is a perfect rider, fencer and dancer, and has an excellent intellectual and especially musical education, and is so wealthy that he never intends to go to the theatre, but only wants to make himself available to me for my festival performances. From next month he will arrive in Bayreuth to devote himself constantly to my instruction and practice until the performances.

I encountered great difficulties with the female roles, until finally the greatest difficulty was overcome by the advice given to me by friends, and I chose Mrs Materna in Vienna to play Brünnhilde. She is the only one who has the voice for this tremendous singing part; in addition, she is fiery, with a heroic figure and an extremely impressive physiognomy, but finally with a truly childlike devotion to me and the cause. – 

I have not decided about Sieglinde yet, although several capable singers have already applied for this role. I am keeping this question pending for some time because I want to wait and see how my relationship with the famous Swede Nielson turns out; her managing director, the famous entrepreneur Ullmann, offered this to me in full, meaning that she would receive 5,000 francs from him for each performance, but would sing to me without any fee. 

She should be a singer of the very first quality, significantly surpassing the former famous Jenny Lind and raving about my music. But she has not sung German yet and would have to master it first; In addition, her husband is French, and he fears that his wife would never be able to perform in Paris again if she took part in these German festival performances. So I am leaving this line-up undecided for now. 

Fricka is already excellently occupied by Ms Sadler-Grün in Coburg; a Miss Oppenheimer from Frankfurt, stately and very important, takes on the role of “Erda”, which is extremely important, especially in the third act of “Siegfried”. The difficult “Rheintöchter” are given to two Lehmann sisters (prima donnas[2] in Berlin and Cologne), as well as the contralto Lammert in Berlin: I can rely on the courage and ability of these three, to whom I probably also assign the “Norns”; they will be practicing using their swimming machines next year. 

Gutrune and Holda are a pair of sisters called Pauli (in Dessau and Hanover) and are excellently cast; even the voice of the forest bird has found an excellently suitable organ in a Miss King in Mannheim. All of these ladies also have to take over the parts of the “Walküren” for me, so that I only have to deal with really dramatic singers and not with a self-conscious chorister.

When it came to procuring the orchestra, I had to stick primarily to those court theatres that stopped their performances for a full three months of summer and thus automatically granted the musicians the necessary vacation. According to inquiries, these were the theatres in Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, Coburg, Braunschweig and Schwerin, as well as Meiningen. From the orchestras of these six theatres, I have now had the most excellent musicians named in every respect and I now intend to construct the basis of my orchestra from these. Kapellmeister Levi recently asked me why I had not also contacted the Royal Court Theatre in Munich; I could tell him that the reason for this was simply the consideration I had just reported for the musicians’ absolutely necessary vacation, which would of course have ruled out an inquiry in Munich: on the other hand, I told him that nothing would make me happier than if he could send me capable artists from Munich too. – 

However, I have appointed the famous violin virtuoso Wilhelmy as my concert master, who had requested this formal appointment from me as a special honour: he will introduce me to particularly capable violinists from among his students. So that paying them does not make it too difficult for my patrons, I have given preference to musicians who are employed and therefore continue to receive their salary during their vacation, to whom we only have to pay travel and subsistence compensation. By the way, my orchestra should become a model for everyone: I am assured of six excellent harpists in the orchestra and one in the theatre. – 

Here I am now becoming anxious as to whether I have not already greatly tired my most gracious master in fulfilling his loving command by carrying out all the above details? – But I say to myself: – he ordered it this way, – and therefore continue! – 

In order to first report on the status of the great undertaking itself, I testify to my august benefactor that His generous example seems to have a beneficial effect in every respect: not that He has found imitators – that does not seem to be the case with our German princes to want to enter! – but as a result of the irrepressible revelation of the fact that my Most High Protector was not opposed to my undertaking, as had been rumoured, but on the contrary had decided rather to bring it to fruition, the trust that had been so maliciously undermined was restored, and my (so few!) active friends were able to campaign again with better success. 

The well-known German painters agreed to a committee founded in Berlin by my most distinguished patron, Frau von Schleinitz, to supply paintings and drawings to an auction for the benefit of Bayreuth: the sale is to take place around November, and it appears that the proceeds will not be insignificant Also, now and again a patron happens to be won, especially by the one and only very young Countess Dönhoff, née Campo Reale, a Neapolitan princess, so that under such auspices the confidence of my much-tormented and worried board of directors is renewed again, although our eyes remain primarily directed towards the gracious disposition of our Most High Patron. 

What is certain is that the remaining costs of the undertaking will ultimately only be covered by the enormously excited curiosity of the richer audience shortly before the finally announced performances, reaching which point can only be our main concern. In this sense, our Most High Patron would grant us the greatest reassurance if He wanted to allow us to make the absolutely necessary use of the patronage funds that are currently being received to instead carry out urgent groundwork and other work necessary to secure the building. 

Fortunately, we now have no expenses at all for the actual artistic staff, and ultimately (given everyone’s good will) probably only very low overall expenses; we also only have to decorate the auditorium at the very end of the remaining work; nevertheless, with regard to the necessary work indicated, we would fall into a very embarrassing delay if we had to immediately repay the advance granted to us by your noble generosity from the sparsely received patronage funds, instead of using them for the other, so necessary work. It is understood that an exact invoice will be submitted to your court secretariat for every expenditure in this sense until the advance payment itself has to be repaid.

Forgive me, my most gracious friend, this dry digression into which I had to resort! After all, everything beautiful on earth only exists through its struggle with the inert matter of real interests! 

You above all, oh! The only one!, you know what demons I had to wrestle with throughout my long life in order to gain a footing for the ethereal nature of my ideal in this leaden world. I form my ideal creations infinitely more delicately and finely woven than everyone demands and needs, and that is why I have to struggle even more harshly with the brutality of matter. – Yes, God made me so that I can endure the fight – and when I threatened to succumb, he sent me his angel! – And now to answer the lovely question about – my life! –

Do you want to know my daily schedule? Excellent! Because here lies the decision as to the direction of my whole life and how these days are filled. In order to characterise my day, I must immediately describe the tendency of my current life: this is to wrest as much peace and serenity of spirit as possible from the demon of all earthly existence so that I am able to fully fulfil the task in service for the genius of humanity in need of redemption. 

As my life has now turned out, I only feel one great regret that I am not ten or fifteen years younger; so many things come to me so very late! I still see a long, healthy life ahead of me, because nowhere is there any noticeable weakening in my vital forces, and all my friends consider me a miracle in this respect. Only I feel that ten and fifteen years ago I was the same person I am today, and this past time has now been lost to me for use in the blessed state in which I have now arrived: i.e., I want, even if I have a long and productive life, which I am likely to have, to be able to enrich it with ten or fifteen years more. 

Then fate has given me another son after a thirty-year barren marriage. What for me lies in telling myself: I have a son – is indescribable! Like Siegfried, he was born in the middle of the raging storm of fate. But he is also so radiantly calm and sunny: only he resembles, especially in his gaze, the Christ child of the Sistine Madonna. It is impossible that this son should become insignificant. What makes me smile is that when people see me walking with the boy next to me, they say it is as if they saw me as a boy next to me. – 

Now, of course, my life has taken on a completely different meaning: now any possessions, domicile, citizenship, assets, everything has a meaning that it never had for me before. And now I have a wise wife who orders, enlivens and spiritualises everything that matters to me. She has taken the pressure of daily life away from me and keeps guard over my peace. She has no other distress than when she realises that not all disturbances can be kept away from me, and that I must often be forced to throw myself into a complete storm of excitement and effort. 

That is how it was last summer, when I had to perform each of the singers’ often outrageous scenes with the most passionate expression myself. Here, however, I became so weak that I finally had to welcome the break that I took to recover as a complete salvation. The similar, often superhuman efforts to which I often subject myself for my job are probably also the reason for the constant, tormenting suffering that unfortunately often robs me of sleep and for which I am actually always in the process of taking a cure. 

This summer I was able to use “my” property for this purpose for the first time. “My” garden, “my” house with its well-equipped bathroom served me excellently for the care of my health. This “own” of mine, as I am allowed to call it according to the will of your generosity, also tells you, when I describe it to you, the daily routine that I live through in it. 

The space of an ordinary decent house with an elevated ground floor and an upper floor was distributed by me in such a way that I reduced the upper family living space to a minimum of the wall height, and in return designated all the wall height for the lower living space, whereby, since I also moved the side rooms together just for small guest bedrooms, I gained a large hall that now arouses the amazement of all my visitors. 

After I have bathed [and] groomed myself in the upper small living quarters and had breakfast with my wife, I descend into the hall around 10 o’clock. This includes all my possessions: the wainscot of the walls contain my collection of books; our pictures hang above it, 25 low cabinets all around hold all our papers and documents; there is the grand piano, here is my large desk with a beautiful Bayreuth marble top; opposite, Cosima’s smaller desk; there again a large folder table with all the gifts and souvenirs, all around comfortable furniture for the reception of even the most numerous visitors; the whole thing is illuminated by a rotunda looking out onto the garden. I work here as long as business does not stop me. 

At 1 o’clock the bell rings for mealtime; the door to the “hall” is opened. This room, admired by everyone, owes its existence to the fact that we did not need a wide staircase leading to the upper rooms because guests never use them; we were able to move this narrower, only necessary staircase into a small porch facing the street, and on the other hand, the room intended for a larger staircase, which leads through the entire house and is illuminated by a skylight from the roof framed at the top with a balcony leading to the family rooms:

here the marble reigns supreme, i.e., the six Zumbusch statues, which my gracious benefactor once gave to me, as well as to my wife, and my own marble bust: the former on my order from an old friend, Kietz in Dresden, very successfully executed, the latter executed by Zumbusch based on the model you ordered for Cosima. Beneath the gallery there is a frieze on a gold background with a Scandinavian snake motif, which includes Echter’s paintings of Der Ring des Nibelungen, the same ones that my illustrious friend once had made for me based on the frescoes of the corridor in the Residenz.[3]

 Through this hall I reach the modest dining room with Cosima, where I find the children around the family table and, after everything has been properly cared for, the meal is eaten together. This is where the mood of the day is decided. Unless significant malaise or upset caused by disgusting business has taken over, the children’s family table usually becomes a source of cheerfulness. 

It is an infinitely beneficial feeling for me to see my poor friend Bülow’s children, who were almost nothing but a burden to him, flourishing as admirably as their abilities would allow, under their mother’s most attentive care. My son is loved almost enthusiastically by all the children: everyone only listens to his funny ideas, through which he keeps the little company laughing almost constantly. This usually does not fail to have an effect on me, a deeply grateful look at the mother ends the cheerful meal, followed by coffee in the garden, the Bayreuther Tageblatt (the only newspaper that I still allow to come into my house and read) is leafed through, and usually a stimulating topic of art, philosophy or life is discussed by me and Cosima. 

Then we have a little , offers of theatre wardrobes and knight’s armour for the Nibelungen Theater, or, what is rest, after which we go back to the large living room to see what has arrived from the post office or somewhere else. I am happy when there is no bad news, and all that is available are poems sent in to be composed, philosophy of art essays that I am supposed to submit to the King of Bavariathe most common, applications for my autograph from English and American art friends: because I have finally, out of necessity, become used to not answering anything like that anymore. 

My dear wife takes care of all other correspondence after she has come to an agreement with me, which in most cases is no longer necessary. If everything is going well, a little more work will be carried out in the morning, i.e., one more page will be orchestrated. Then we go for a walk, or, if the carriage of the “Sonnenwirt”, the only one who hires out their carriage, is available, we take the children on a trip to “Eremitage” or “Fantaisie”, where “voyages of discovery” take place in the forest, as the children call it.

But I often just visit the festival theatre on the lovely hill in front of the city, which I had to avoid for a long time last summer because it was constantly visited by so many strangers whom I had to avoid. I am then happy about the love of the people of Bayreuth for me, who make themselves known to me in every way, since everyone clearly recognises what a great movement my undertaking has brought to their city. I have been assured that the strangers who came here to see the theatre this summer can only be counted in the many thousands, and often four to five hundred of them visited the future festival building in one day. – 

Now comes the evening: at 7 o’clock a simple meal with the children. At 8 o’clock we retreat to the hall with Cosima, where there is always a reading, unless my frequent guests are allowed to visit us now, where conversation and music will be played. These evenings are also considered compensation for the self-sacrificing work that several very capable young musicians have long since undertaken by obtaining the copies necessary for the performances. Shipments to them are already arriving at the address: “Nibelungenkanzlei in Bayreuth”. There are now four of them: a Saxon, Zumpe, who has already been a conductor, a Hungarian, a Russian and finally a Macedonian. 

At the same time, I train them to be future capable conductors of my work, while for now they have to help me in everything. I then let these apprentices of mine play music in the evening, and they claim to learn something from this, at least more than in the expensive conservatories and music schools. – 

This summer also brought me so many visits from old and new acquaintances that it once occurred to me to declare Bayreuth to be the centre of the world. At the moment these visitors, and especially the citizens of Bayreuth, are extremely pleased to see scaffolding erected on the front wall of my house, which faces the street, because they rightly assume that “something” should go where they used to see the closed wall without windows, which annoyed them so much. 

In truth, my wife had the excellent idea of having a “sgraffito” painted by a younger historical painter friend of ours, Krausse from Weimar, who had learned this art excellently. This represents the “artwork of the future” in a monumental drawing. The Germanic myth occupies the centre; since we wanted to have characteristic physiognomies, we chose the head of the late Ludwig Schnorr; Wotan’s ravens fly to him from both sides, and he now announces the arrival of the mare to two female figures, one of whom represents the ancient Tragedy, with the portrait resemblance of Schroeder-Devrient, but the other represents Music, with the head and figure of Cosima; a little boy, decked out as Siegfried, with the head of my son, looks up with courageous joy at Mother Music who takes him by the hand. I believe the whole thing will turn out admirably, and a picture of it will be sent to my illustrious friend immediately. – 

A planted area in the courtyard in front of the house already encloses the granite base on which the bronze bust of the owner of all my prosperity and happiness is to be placed. There are still difficulties in making it according to my wishes: as the circumstances of the whole show, it has to be twice the size of life. Master Zumbusch now explained to me that the bust would be easier and less expensive to produce in marble, whereas a new model would first have to be worked out for an ore cast, which would take a lot of time and incur greater costs. But now I cannot decide whether to close the bust with a wooden case for almost half of the year, namely against the harsh weather, which would be essential with the marble. So I am still undecided, and for the time being I look with sadness at the empty place. 

Oh! How lucky it would be if our Most Gracious Lord even wanted to take a look at His poor Bayreuth! I would almost like to wish so, because this look would then show him the truth about my house, which is always so distastefully distorted in the newspapers. We have actually produced something that surprises everyone in the world because of its novelty and originality, with limited resources, for example by leaving out any external decoration and, on the other hand, having the artistic part of the internal model made by completely unknown craftsmen, who this time achieved something only because they were constantly and laboriously instructed by us. 

Nevertheless, all of this would not have been possible for me if the intellectual property had not received vigorous protection from the new imperial legislation, which has now made it possible for me to receive some income from the theatre performances of my older works, which are now being performed more and more frequently and which have been left completely unprotected, which I would have otherwise completely missed. It is thanks to these favourable circumstances that I can think about the future provision of my family with considerable peace of mind, since the protection of the ownership of my works extends until thirty years after my death. 

For now and in the near future, however, I must do everything to reimburse the additional costs of my settlement and establishment here, and since when the king visits a prisoner, this act of kindness always wants to be accompanied by a royal grace, I boldly use it this occasion to once again ask my illustrious Lord for the relief in my livelihood that He would bring about through an undiminished continuation of the grace salary generously granted to me. 

When, several years ago, I believed that I could support my life for a while with a salary I could reduce by deducting an advance, I did not yet know that I would have the great happiness of being the carer of a family. A lot now helps me in the duties I have taken on, but I have only been able to move freely again since your grace allowed the withdrawal of that advance to be stopped. I dare to place at your feet the request that this generous consideration be maintained. 

It always occurs to me how painfully I regret not being ten years younger: I have so little time left to wait patiently! On the other hand, I see that as a German you have to get very old in order to achieve the fruits of one’s labour; these are now finally ripening for me, I realise that, and if heaven were to let me live as long as Goethe, Gluck, Haydn, etc., then I believe I could pluck these fruit in a state of ripeness such that no one has achieved before. – 

When the Feustel family came into my finished living room for the first time, the wife said: “What are you going to achieve here?” – I looked at Cosima and whispered to her: “Yes, yes, – I now believe in Parzival too!” – And this Parzival, my kind king, it is pledged to you! Everything for the studies is already ready. – But do not think lightly of the “Götterdämmerung”! I have now had to work on the orchestration of this final work with the most incessant interruptions and with absolutely agonising effort, and I often cursed myself for having designed it so lavishly: it is the tower that rises above the entire Nibelungen structure, high into the clouds! That is what everyone who knows the work says. Oh! My dear, most magnificent! Do not worry about my execution! You will not miss anything, not anything, and you will learn so many new and unknown things from this work that you will be free from reproach! –

But what about your patience now? Did I understand you correctly, beloved Lord, when I flattered myself that you would like the greatest detail in answering your questions? And I would not be finished for a long time, because to have you loosen my mouth is to make it overflow. So I really dare to have one last discussion, which is almost likely to turn into a humble question on my part, because – it concerns the perhaps very difficult point of your royal attendance at the future festive performances.

How should I now – finally – begin to address, with the humbleness that is due to me, the question which, perhaps from the very beginning, represented a difficult obstacle that stood in the way of my entire undertaking? I know it, and have experienced it through a vigorous example, that the highly enlightened protector of my art takes the achievements of this particular art very seriously and does not seek shallow, conventional entertainment in its presence. 

I now actually offer the performances of my great work – in your august name, my King! – the German audience; among the patrons of the enterprise are German princes – from the Emperor onwards. Their involvement has by no means proven to be so ardent that I should assume that they were more concerned with the matter itself than with simply coming to terms with it out of necessity. Regardless of this, it is possible that some of these most serene gentlemen will come to the festival performances. I therefore had a gallery built at the end of the auditorium with a special entrance, which can comfortably accommodate at least a hundred people. 

This gallery is exclusively at the disposal of my exalted Lord and Kings: He will admit to it whomever He has the grace to choose, while all other rights acquired through patronage subscriptions are only for good and comfortable seats in the main room. Now I come to the anxious question: will my king really come to the festival performances? Will He give them true consecration through His august presence? Or – will he, the deep and serious-minded person, want to withdraw from the association even of princes, which might also happen in a possible event, and would rather stay away than expose himself to the various disruptions in the enjoyment of art, that the consideration of those illustrious visits could cause him? 

I am certainly asking a very unwarranted question, as none of your gracious statements have prompted me to do so. However, should I encounter a scruple with my concern that might in any way worry my illustrious friend, I would ask myself nothing other than to get to know your gracious opinion exactly. In any case, I do not think I would be completely unwelcome to make an offer to you, namely: to organise a performance of the entire work – as a dress rehearsal, so to speak – in the first week of August 1876, with the auditorium completely closed, for my illustrious master, as the only listener. Whatever my King would decide afterwards, whether He would deign to give the German art festival the perfect consecration of a true national festival of origin through His continued, sublime presence, that should then perhaps be left to the success of the evenings on which the work was first handed over to Him alone.

I allow myself to present these indications to my illustrious Lord in order to familiarise Himself with the possibilities from which He will choose according to the highest judgment and accordingly give His orders to His most reverently faithful servant. The only thing that bothers me is that I had to push the time of the performances back so much; however, my certain consciousness tells me that this is not due to a lack of zeal on my part, whereas it is my deepest consolation that, after everything I have experienced and undergone, the execution of my undertaking, which has finally been realised, must seem an impossibility made possible. Only a king like you, exalted one, and only – perhaps me with you – could this succeed.

Hail! Hail to you, my king! Hail to the invisible geniuses who listen to Our work! Richest blessing to the Lord of my days, the master of my most holy spiritual strength! – 

Thus concludes my most exalted benefactor 

Eternally yours 
Richard Wagner

Bayreuth. 
1 October 1874

[Translated by Jo Cousins]


[1] Wagner writes “von der Höhe des Theaters”, which directly translates as “from the height of the theatre”. 

[2] Wagner writes “erste Sängerinnen”.

[3] “Residenz” refers to Ludwig II’s residence in Munich. 

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