Wagner, Richard

to an important but unnamed friend in Dresden or Weimar (“Hochgeehrtester Herr!”), expressing his happiness on the recipient’s support and friendship and the assistance of the Duke of Weimar, floating the possibility of an early return to Dresden, despite the intransigence of the King of Saxony, discussing his work on The Ring and his plans for performance and revealing his decision to abandon his work on the tetralogy forTristan and urging him to discretion: only Wagner’s closest friends know about this momentous decision

...Ueber mein grosses und compliziertes Nibelungen-Werk fällt es mir schwer in Kurze mich Ihnen verständlich mitzutheilen: es enthält allerdings vier ganze Theater-Abende, von denen jedoch auch jeder getrennt für sich geboten werden kann, wenn namentlich das Ganze einmal gekannt ist, was sicher nur in ausserordentlicher Weise geschehn kann. Für jetzt-obwohl bereits mit dem grösseren Teilen des dritten Theaterabends fertig—sehe ich jedoch gänzlich von der Möglichkeit der Aufführung in meinem Sinne ab, weil ich dazu  Mittel bedarf, die mir nur nach erhaltener Möglichkeit, Deutschland wieder zu betreten, sich bieten können. Ist es mir jedoch erreichbar, ein gutes Theater für die erste Aufführung eines Werkes von geringerem Umfange und minderen Schwierigkeiten—jedoch unter meiner eigenen Leitung zu finden, so bin ich entschlossen, mich für einige Zeit in der Weiter-Arbeit an den Nibelungen zu unterbrechen, um ein einfaches Stück “Tristan und Isolde” auszuführen, welches jetzt über ein Jahr fertig sein würde. Diese letzte Mittheilung ersuche ich Sie aber also ein durchaus vertrauliches zu betrachten; nur meinen nächsten Freunden bisher bekannt, glaubte ich sie Ihnen, nach Ihre nur so erfreulichen Annäherung, heute nicht vorenthalten zu dürfen;  ersuche Sie aber vor allem sie nicht in die publizistische Offentlichkeit sie dringen zu lassen...



4 pages, 8vo, Zurich, 6 October [18]57; inscribed by recipient: “Rich.Wagner. Zürich 6.Octo.9—“, splitting at hinge repaired, a few slight stains

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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This is an important and historic letter, revealing a course of action which was to change the direction of Wagner’s musical career and the trajectory of music history. In the mid 1850s, with Wagner cut off from his native Germany as a consequence of his political activities, Wagner had drafted the libretti of all four operas of The Ring and composed all the music to the end of Act II of Siegfried. Wagner reveals in this letter that no performance of this gigantic work could be organised at the present time, so he took the brave decision to abandon it temporarily, as he thought, and compose a work which might be easier to stage: Tristan und Isolde. In fact that work would not be performed until 1865 and his break from composition on his tetralogy would last many more years than envisaged in October 1857. During his work on Tristan and later on Die Meistersinger,  Wagner’s musical and harmonic language became enriched and as a result Act III of Siegfried and all of Götterdämmerung speaks a different musical language from the earlier music dramas.

The recipient of this letter was obviously a significant, but hitherto unknown, person in Wagner’s life. This letter was published from a transcript in the Saemmtliche Briefe (ix, no.18). The annotations made by the recipient may well now reveal who he was.