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.

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Showing all years (786 total)

Date	From	To	Place	Words	Subject
August 8, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Lucerne	286	No summary available.
August 9, 1859*	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	25	Liszt sends Wagner his warmest congratulations on the completion of Tristan. The brief note is entirely one of heartfelt acknowledgment and celebration.
August 11, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Lucerne	330	No summary available.
August 16, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Lucerne	505	No summary available.
August 19, 1859	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Lucerne	310	Wagner asks Liszt to convey his heartfelt congratulations to Princess Marie on her approaching marriage, since illness and fever prevent him from writing to her directly. He then says he is grieved by the loss of Liszt's hoped-for visit, reports that even his plan of quiet retirement in Paris is blocked because the French minister refuses a passport visa, and confesses that he can only wait in uncertainty over where fate will next send him.
August 22, 1859	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	666	Liszt responds tenderly to Wagner's illness, saying he would gladly nurse him if he could, then urges him to clarify exactly where the passport-visa obstacle lies so that help may be applied in the right quarter. He again argues that Paris would suit Wagner better than Swiss isolation while Germany remains closed, asks for definite news about the planned Tristan performance at Carlsruhe, and closes with affectionate domestic details, including a Rienzi piano fantasy, Wagner's portrait and bust in his room, and warm praise for Draeseke.
August 24, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Lucerne	1,011	No summary available.
August 27, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Lucerne	452	No summary available.
September 23, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,438	No summary available.
October 10, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,163	No summary available.
October 20, 1859	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Paris	455	Wagner sends Liszt an intensely affectionate birthday greeting, saying Liszt's existence itself fills a void in the world and that his friendship remains an absolute necessity to Wagner's life. He then pleads for a personal meeting soon, insisting that Carlsruhe and Tristan are too uncertain to be trusted as occasions, and asks Liszt to come before his wife returns, while ending in a mood of bleak settlement without faith, love, or hope.
October 21, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	148	No summary available.
October 23, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	585	No summary available.
October 29, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,845	No summary available.
November 11, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,183	No summary available.
November 23, 1859	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Paris	740	Wagner tells Liszt that a hurried two-day meeting at Strasbourg would be useless to him because what he longs for is not business discussion but sustained private life together, and he cannot understand why Liszt now refuses a discreet visit to Paris after earlier encouraging that very plan. He therefore declines the Strasbourg proposal, falls silent about many of his deeper troubles, notes that the Carlsruhe Tristan scheme has effectively collapsed under Devrient's excuses, and remarks bitterly on the financial consequences while adding that his wife has arrived somewhat improved in health.
November 29, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,188	No summary available.
December 19, 1859	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	469	No summary available.
January 1, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	937	No summary available.
January 28, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	734	No summary available.
March 3, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	3,162	No summary available.
March 29, 1860	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Brussels	708	Wagner writes from Brussels that while grand Parisian prospects are being arranged around him, they still feel like a mocking mirage, and he remains far more concerned with finding some viable German path for Tristan than with the uncertain Tannhauser scheme in Paris. He reports new contacts and recommends A. Samuel to Liszt, then returns to Paris to confront demands for a ballet in Tannhauser, saying he may withdraw the work if he cannot avoid that compromise, while again asking Liszt for some fragment of his own life amid all this brilliant misery.
April 10, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	3,021	No summary available.
May 2, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,350	No summary available.
May 22, 1860*	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	49	Wagner sends Liszt brief but heartfelt birthday wishes. The note is only a concise token of remembrance and affection.
May 23, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,711	No summary available.
May 31, 1860	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	637	Liszt responds to Wagner's letter with intense affection, saying he longs to be with him in Paris amidst the world of the Ring and Tristan, and he mixes this feeling with domestic and symbolic details about Wagner's portrait, bust, and the settling of the Princess's long personal struggle. He also comments on the coming Paris Tannhauser labor, notes possible singers and practicalities, and asks Wagner to state plainly what he now most wants for Tristan, adding that if no better opportunity appears, he believes he may still be able to arrange a Weimar performance in the following season.
June 15, 1860	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Paris	121	Wagner asks Liszt to press Dingelstedt for an immediate answer because he urgently needs to know whether he can obtain money to provide the summer treatment his wife's doctor has prescribed. He states plainly that he cannot accept less than one thousand francs, and while not wishing to burden Liszt personally, he begs him to do whatever he can without harming himself.
June 20, 1860*	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	240	Wagner reports that Dingelstedt has refused the thousand francs and offered only thirty louis d'or, leaving him torn between urgent need for money to send his wife for a cure and his fear that constant surrender will ruin any chance of ever being treated properly. He tells Liszt he has firmly but politely maintained his original demand and now begs him to use his diplomatic skill to find some middle course before the whole matter collapses and he is left with nothing at all.
June 24, 1860*	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	249	Liszt says he has been unable to obtain anything beyond Dingelstedt's existing offer and therefore reluctantly advises Wagner to accept it for now, since the Grand Duke is absent and no other route is available before the performance. He adds that after Rienzi is actually staged he hopes to secure some additional money, reports practical preparations for the production, and asks Wagner to bear the situation patiently until something better can be done.
July 10, 1860*	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	408	Liszt rejoices at Madame Kalergi's intervention on Wagner's behalf in the concert affair and sends thanks to their noble protectress, while wishing Wagner endurance through the hard labor and patience demanded by the Paris Tannhauser rehearsals. He also shares the personal grief of losing his brave friend Clara Riese, notes that nothing decisive can yet be done at Weimar before Rienzi is actually performed, and encourages Wagner to keep using Kalergi's influence where it may help him further.
July 22, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,237	No summary available.
August 1, 1860*	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,338	No summary available.
August 10, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,364	No summary available.
August 14, 1860	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	365	Liszt advises Wagner that it is entirely right to pay a personal visit of thanks to the Princess Regent at Baden-Baden, since her favor may materially help his situation and deepen her interest in his works. At the same time Liszt sorrowfully declines to come to Baden himself, believing a hurried meeting there would be painful and less useful than waiting for a more favorable occasion, and he asks Wagner not to misread this decision as laziness or selfishness.
September 13, 1860	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Paris	2,060	Wagner writes more calmly after Baden to explain why he had tried to combine a practical Rhine excursion with even a brief meeting, reaffirms that Weimar still means Liszt above all else to him, and then sets out how limited and conditional his new access to Germany still remains, leaving Tristan's future stage life deeply uncertain and perhaps dependent on Hanover. At the same time he reports with unexpected confidence on the Paris Tannhauser enterprise, praising the Emperor's support, the material resources, the translation, and the seriousness of the preparations, while ending with bitter reflections on Germany, loneliness, friendship, and Liszt's own hidden sadness.
September 21, 1860	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	990	Liszt gratefully receives Wagner's clarifying letter, says he now better understands the failed Baden meeting, and hopes that if Wagner cannot yet come properly to Weimar with the distinction he deserves, Liszt may instead soon visit him first in Paris. He agrees that Hanover may be the best ground for Tristan, reflects bitterly on German artistic cowardice, asks Wagner to publish in German the preface to his French dramatic edition, praises Wagner's understanding of Liszt's own new passivity toward the public fate of his works, and ends by saying that the two of them simply belong together and must at last come together.
September 30, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,921	No summary available.
October 24, 1860	Richard Wagner	Otto Wesendonck	Paris	274	No summary available.
November 13, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	472	No summary available.
November 17, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	430	No summary available.
November 24, 1860	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Paris	219	Wagner writes from a state of prolonged and serious weakness, saying he has been very ill for four weeks and can scarcely write. In this condition he urgently asks Liszt to procure and send him any available copy of The Ring of the Nibelung poem from Weimar so he can reprint it, and he ends by imploring Liszt to come to Paris and make him happy.
November 24, 1860*	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	405	No summary available.
December 2, 1860	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	324	Liszt reports that he has secured a copy of the Nibelungen poem for Wagner through Counsellor Muller and has already sent it to Paris by a French embassy courier, together with Franz Muller's book on Wagner and music drama. He then asks practical questions about Wagner's French operatic editions and score publication plans, describes current preparations for Rienzi at Weimar while refusing to conduct the performance itself, and says he still intends to come to Paris once he can name the date exactly.
December 4, 1860	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	114	No summary available.
December 15, 1860	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Paris	328	Wagner says he is recovering strength only very slowly because the Paris opera rehearsals consume what little health he has regained, leaving even the proofs of Rhinegold untouched for weeks and delaying all the publication plans he had pressed so urgently. He apologizes for seeming neglectful, explains that the Tannhauser revisions still demand major unfinished work including the new Venus scene and dance music, and ends by wishing that Liszt would finally come to Paris.
December 23, 1860*	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	873	No summary available.
February 12, 1861	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	1,585	No summary available.
April 6, 1861	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Paris	832	No summary available.
April 18, 1861	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	263	Liszt says that after difficulties and anxieties which had previously prevented it, he now hopes at last to reach Paris in early May, though he prefers to keep the plan quiet for fear of fresh hindrances. He also asks Wagner's permission for a partial performance of the second act of Tristan at the musicians' meeting in August with Schnorr and his wife, stressing that such a fragment should not interfere with Wagner's larger intentions and requesting a prompt answer.
No letters found.

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