Wagner, Richard.

explaining to Fischer that he has been thinking about redrafting the end of Tannhäuser for a long time and that he now wants Fischer to change the orchestral score accordingly, discussing his relationship with his publisher Meser of Dresden and informing him of the imminent arrival of Liszt, with Joachim and Robert Franz; Wagner encloses a two-page transcript of the new ending of the libretto with his letter, asking him to forward it to Meser, and describes in detail how these alterations have to be made in the score, especially regarding the stage directions and sets (discussing the appearance of the Venusberg and the final close with just the Pilgrims' Chorus alone) and the make-up of the chorus (discussing whether certain houses should use women's voices instead of men's voices), imploring him to make sure that these changes are implemented and passed on to other opera houses at Breslau, Leipzig, Wiesbaden, Cassel, Weimar and Prague, and suggesting that he  might make a piano score of the opera without words, to come out as soon as possible, Wagner's manuscript containing deletions and revisions and inserted passages written by him in the margins, 6 pages in all, 8vo (c.21-22 x 14cms), blue paper, with a letter by Otto Lessman about acquiring Wagner's letter from Fischer's son, Zurich, 30 June 1853 [Sämtliche Briefe, V, no.196; cf WWV 70 Xb (p.268)]

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"...Ich will doch endlich etwas in Ordnung bringen, was mir lange wieder im Kopf herumgeht.  Es betrifft den Schluss des Tannhäuser. Allen, denen neuerdings das Erscheinen der Leiche Elisabeth's unangenehm war, soll geholfen werden.  Ich bitte Dich daher, von nun an die Partituren folgendermaassen einrichten zu lassen...die 5 Takte G im 2^ten Horne und B-Wirbel in der Pauke (...zu den Worten "Himmels Heil erfleht")--bleiben fort, weil der Chor nun nicht die Bühne betritt, sondern in der Ferne (oben) bleibt..."

This important letter contains Wagner's revisions and detailed instructions for the end of Tannhäuser; it also provides evidence of when these alterations were sent to the publisher G. F. Meser of Dresden, so that they could be incorporated into further issues of the libretto.  The passage revised by Wagner here ("Aenderung im Schluss des Tannhäuser von der entsprechenden Stelle im alten Texte an"), runs from Figure H, "Maestoso", until the end of the opera (pages 409-419 of the Dover full score), including the male chorus announcing the death of Elisabeth ("Der Seele Heil"), the fall of the vanquished Venus ("Weh! mir, verloren!"), Tannhäuser's final collapse into Wolfram's arms (and not onto Elisabeth's funeral bier), and the final strains of the famous Pilgrim's Chorus ("Der Gnade Heil").  The text here is revised from the 1845 version, but is not yet in its final definitive form.