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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 8, 1850 | Richard Wagner | Theodore Uhlig | Paris | 357 |
From Paris, Wagner tells Uhlig about planned writings, including an article on Art and Climate and a possible self-issued series called Papers on Art and Life, while reflecting that The Wibelungs would have suited a review better than a brochure. He also explains the likely basis of a rumor involving the king: after hearing a false report that Heubner had been sentenced to death, he wrote Frau von Lüttichau urging royal clemency and even friendship toward Heubner.
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| February 24, 1850 | Richard Wagner | Theodore Uhlig | Paris | 806 |
Wagner corrects any impression that Zurich caused his loneliness by naming the young Swiss friends and supporters whose generosity and radical or artistic sympathy sustained his family, then contrasts them with Paris, where he finds artists compromised and society absorbed in business. He reports seeing Meyerbeer's Le Prophète, diagnosing his own troubles as partly nervous, telling Liszt he will not write a Paris opera, and turning instead toward German works and writings such as The Work of Art of the Future, Wieland, Siegfried, and Achilleus.
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| No letters found. | |||||