Wagner's Letters
Correspondence by, to, and around Richard Wagner
Wagner’s letters form one of the great documentary records of nineteenth-century artistic life. They reveal the practical, intellectual, emotional, and ideological world behind the works: artistic plans, financial crises, theatrical battles, friendships, quarrels, patronage, exile, revolution, Bayreuth, family life, philosophical reflection, and the shifting circle of figures who helped shape Wagner’s public and private destiny.
This archive is organized chronologically, but it is also designed as a map of Wagner’s relationships. The letters may be browsed by year and month, by sender and recipient, or by major correspondents such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodor Uhlig, and Franz Liszt.
Letters from Wagner should be read beside letters sent to him. The outgoing letters often show Wagner fashioning his own cause, defending his works, pleading for help, or advancing his vision of art. The incoming letters reveal how that vision was received, resisted, misunderstood, supported, or transformed by those around him.
Because the collection contains thousands of letters, the table below is intended as a finding aid rather than a replacement for the individual letter pages. Use the filters to narrow the archive by year, month, correspondent, or direction, then open a letter to read the full text.
Note: An asterisk (*) next to the date indicates an exact date for the letter was unavailable and a date has been interpolated from context and ordering.
| Date | From | To | Place | Words | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 1, 1838 | Richard Wagner | August Lewald | Riga | 1,865 |
Wagner writes to August Lewald from Riga, thanking him for earlier support and asking for help in renewing his attempt to reach the Paris operatic world. He recounts sending Scribe both the grand-opera subject Die hohe Braut and the comic opera Das Liebesverbot, then asks Lewald for contacts or an address for the Opéra Comique because his French ambitions have revived in northern isolation.
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| April 1, 1841 | Richard Wagner | August Lewald | Paris | 213 |
Wagner sends August Lewald Parisian news and three musical pieces for Europa, assuming Lewald still welcomes such contributions. He also asks Lewald to interest Cotta or another capable publisher in a proposed Beethoven biography that would present Beethoven's artistic periods in an entertaining, non-pedantic manner.
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| No letters found. | |||||