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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Date	From	To	Place	Words	Subject
October 30, 1851	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Albisbrunn	230	Wagner tells Hans von Bülow that Uhlig will send the Tannhäuser score arranged for Weimar and hopes Liszt's earlier reasons for cuts no longer apply. He urges Weimar to stage The Flying Dutchman as the necessary beginning of the trilogy formed with Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, giving practical advice on moderating brass and omitting cadenzas.
November 20, 1851	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Albisbrunn	3,631	Wagner finally breaks his silence to thank Liszt for the new pamphlet on his operas and to explain that his original promise to write a new work specifically for Weimar has now been fundamentally transformed by the inner logic of the Nibelung material. He says that Young Siegfried and Siegfried's Death have forced him backward into The Valkyrie and The Rape of the Rhinegold, so that the whole myth must become a four-part cycle intended for festival performance over several days, and he adds that recent private support frees him from material anxiety long enough to complete it while also releasing him from the painful thought of demanding its realization from Weimar as it stands.
December 1, 1851	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	514	Liszt responds with wholehearted admiration for Wagner's enlarged Nibelung project, saying the task is worthy of him and expressing complete confidence in its eventual monumental success. He urges Wagner to work on without care, encloses a letter from Zigesar as a token of steady friendship, briefly comments on Weimar and Raff's new opera, and asks to keep Young Siegfried until Christmas and for news of Wagner's operatic poems and preface.
December 14, 1851	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	482	Wagner thanks Liszt fervently for receiving the new Nibelung plan with full approval and says that being understood by him in so bold an undertaking is almost as satisfying as seeing it realized. He adds that he is still recovering and will use the winter to clear the ground for the whole poem, tells Liszt to keep the copy of Young Siegfried as his own, asks for a medallion and portrait of Liszt for his household, and reports the imminent publication of the operatic poems, their preface, and the piano score of Lohengrin.
January 4, 1852	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	728	The writer describes being freshly moved by a performance of Lohengrin and says that Liszt's indefatigable instruction has made the work better understood and better performed with each revival. She then compares two interpreters of Ortrud, one younger and more beautiful and the other dramatically stronger and darker, asks Wagner which conception better serves the role, and closes by warmly praising Liszt's soul and intelligence.
January 15, 1852	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	602	Liszt apologizes for writing late but says that Wagner's latest gift has delighted their whole circle, while the repeated Weimar performances of Lohengrin have steadily improved both actors and audience and promise still greater success. He reports an enthusiastic private reading of Siegfried for the Hereditary Grand Duke and others, expresses complete faith that the vast work can eventually be staged somewhere under Wagner's instructions, and says the close of the preface to the operatic poems deeply moved him.
January 30, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	1,768	Wagner thanks Liszt for the latest Weimar performance of Lohengrin but confesses how painful it is to remain cut off from hearing his own works, and says he no longer imagines the Nibelung dramas for the ordinary public of great cities but rather for a gathered circle of friends in some fitting solitude. He gives detailed instructions for future Weimar revivals of The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, and the Apostles work, insists especially on restoring Tannhauser completely and using the revised ending, and replies to Princess Wittgenstein's remarks by explaining that Ortrud is not a jealous woman but a grand, loveless, political fanatic animated by murderous devotion to the dead past.
January 30, 1852	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	206	Wagner advises Hans von Bülow on a Romeo and Juliet overture by pointing to his own essay on Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, which he understands as music for a concentrated dramatic scene between Coriolanus and his mother. He warns that philosophical abstraction will make Bülow's music incomprehensible, because absolute music can express feelings and passions but not political or social relationships, and urges a similarly terse dramatic focus.
February 15, 1852	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	382	Wagner rebukes Hans von Bülow over architecture, arguing that the plastic arts arise from architecture because human need for dwelling generates artistic form and calls on sculpture and painting to humanize it. He denies any autonomous architectural artwork apart from ordinary or poetic need, tracing temples and churches to real historical necessities and claiming that the modern successor to such collective need is the theatre.
March 4, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	366	Wagner sends Liszt a programmatic explanation of the Tannhauser overture for a Zurich performance and says rereading Liszt's writings on it has again convinced him of Liszt's rare ability to express musical feeling in words. He renews his wish that Liszt become his own poet in French or Italian verse, comments bitterly on the corrupt public and artistic reaction to recent matters, and consents to publication of his Goethe Foundation letter because he wants to clear the air and then leave literature behind for his new poetic work.
March 4, 1852	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	186	Wagner reassures Hans von Bülow that dissatisfaction with his own work is a normal part of artistic development and that severe criticism is less dangerous than weak or parasitic criticism. He advises him not to despair or envy Karl Ritter, arguing that true contentment will come only from life-force and lived experience, and that Karl is even farther from that living source.
March 21, 1852	Richard Wagner	Francisca Wagner	Zurich	641	Wagner writes Francisca that he had feared being neglected like Johanna, whose parents have discouraged contact with him, and explains that while he accepts support freely from true friends such as the Ritters, he is proud and resistant toward those who do not understand him. He praises Francisca's independent feeling as a dramatic actress, contrasts it with mere vocal training, insists his works need actresses who can sing, and notes that the Schwerin Tannhäuser pleased him because it showed the self-sacrificing enthusiasm he can inspire.
April 4, 1852	Richard Wagner	Karl Ritter	Zurich	1,015	Wagner tells Karl Ritter that a Zurich performance of the Tannhäuser Overture for Herwegh unexpectedly stirred sympathetic listeners, encouraging him to stage The Flying Dutchman, and he urges Karl to come because Wagner's creative energy depends on sharing work with like-minded individuals rather than the public multitude. He also explains that Julie Ritter's support enables his independence from fees, worries distance will cool that loving bond, and says a new gentler water-cure regimen from Dr. Lindemann requires regular artistic work and should also draw Karl out of his unhealthy isolation.
April 7, 1852	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	461	Liszt asks after Wagner after a long silence, reports being occupied with Cellini rehearsals and other work, and says he chose Berlioz's opera for practical reasons tied to the progress of his efforts in Weimar. He also asks confidentially whether Wagner has truly petitioned Dresden for a pardon, reports some reactions to Wagner's preface, notes obstacles to an immediate new performance of Lohengrin, and mentions future Weimar plans for The Flying Dutchman, the Apostles, and the Faust overture.
April 13, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	999	Wagner says spring has revived him and that he is rehearsing The Flying Dutchman in Zurich, then seriously invites Liszt to come hear the first performances and inspect the staging for use at Weimar. He firmly denies any wish or attempt to seek pardon or return to Germany, clarifies that he is not hostile to Liszt's Cellini project even if he doubts the practical results expected from it, regrets the interruption of Lohengrin in Weimar, and ends with a restless, humorous yearning to travel rather than remain stuck in place.
May 4, 1852*	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	622	Liszt regrets that he could not come to Zurich but says the good reports of The Flying Dutchman delighted him, and he plans to stage it at Weimar next winter strictly according to Wagner's wishes, asking for all exact alterations, stage designs, and instructions. He also reports a makeshift court performance pieced together from Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Berlioz, and Cellini because illness made a full opera impossible, notes future Weimar plans for Tannhauser, Spohr's Faust, and Schumann's Manfred, and adds that Wagner's Faust overture made a strong impression.
May 6, 1852	Richard Wagner	Louis Schindelmeisser	Zurich	144	Wagner tells Louis Schindelmeisser that he is wary of sending Tannhäuser unless assured it can be performed in the right spirit, especially given the demands of the leading roles. If Schindelmeisser can meet those difficulties, Wagner welcomes his zeal but asks for a definite honorarium on sale of the score because Saxony may seize later receipts under the high-treason forfeiture.
May 16, 1852	Richard Wagner	Louis Schindelmeisser	Zurich	269	Wagner admires Schindelmeisser's courage in taking on Tannhäuser and hopes his practical skill can overcome the limited rehearsal time and serious difficulties of the work. He says the modern public matters little to him now, but winning Schindelmeisser as both an old and renewed friend through a true understanding of the opera would give him deep satisfaction.
May 25, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	222	Wagner writes briefly to prevent a misunderstanding about the Flying Dutchman sketches, saying that the designer's work is only mediocre and not really worth the five louis d'or proposed for it. He asks Liszt to make only occasional use of the sketches if they are sent and to limit the remuneration to fifty francs, explaining this arrangement to the Weimar management.
May 29, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	1,835	Wagner thanks Liszt for continuing to advance his works, comments on possible publication of the Faust overture and on the practical needs of the Tannhauser overture and Liebesmahl performances, but devotes most of the letter to urging that Tannhauser be given as completely and truthfully as possible. He insists above all on restoring the crucial penitential passage in the second-act finale because it reveals the whole inner meaning of the drama, gives further casting and musical advice for both Tannhauser and The Flying Dutchman, reports the striking success of the Zurich Dutchman, and says his Nibelung tetralogy is now fully planned and will soon be finished in verse.
May 30, 1852	Richard Wagner	Louis Schindelmeisser	Zurich	733	Wagner gives Schindelmeisser detailed performance advice for Tannhäuser, stressing that the stage-manager must know the score deeply because action, staging, and music must mutually justify one another. He insists singers learn recitative-like passages exactly in rhythm and tempo before taking freedom, resists further cuts unless performers are fundamentally inadequate, and warns that the opera succeeds only on different terms from ordinary opera.
June 16, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	387	Wagner asks Liszt to help him obtain an advance of about twenty to twenty-five louis d'or against the expected Weimar honorarium for The Flying Dutchman so that, after finishing The Valkyrie poem, he can travel to the Alps and briefly into Italy for needed recreation. He says ordinary income cannot cover such a journey, reports that The Valkyrie is turning out beautifully, and expects to place the entire poetic tetralogy before Liszt by the end of the summer.
June 26, 1852	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	444	Liszt sends Wagner a bill for one hundred thalers to support his Alpine trip and wishes him both good weather and good spirits while he presses on with the tetralogy, which Liszt already wonders might be performable by 1854. He thanks Wagner for the Lohengrin dedication, confirms a February Weimar production of The Flying Dutchman, reports favorably on recent performances of Liebesmahl der Apostel, the Dutchman duet, and the Tannhauser overture, and notes the enthusiasm these works aroused when adequately performed.
July 25, 1852*	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	431	Wagner thanks Liszt for the money but wants assurance that the hundred thalers were truly advanced against the expected Weimar honorarium for The Flying Dutchman and did not inconvenience anyone else. He says the trip comes at exactly the right moment because intense work on The Valkyrie has badly overstrained him, and he asks Liszt to have the Weimar management answer the designer directly about the Dutchman sketches while thanking him again for all he has done to win him new friends.
August 7, 1852	Richard Wagner	Julie Ritter	Zurich	488	Wagner tells Julie Ritter that his nerves and mind are strained, travel toward Italy briefly enchanted him but destroyed his last illusion that he can recover youthful joy, leaving art as the only force that still sustains him. He seeks self-preservation in isolation, walks, and a small lakeside house with a garden, while noting growing theatrical interest in his operas, concern for Julie's daughter Julia and her connection with Kummer, and bleak news about Otto's health.
August 23, 1852	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	984	Liszt thanks Wagner warmly for the dedication of Lohengrin and tells him not to concern himself with petty newspaper jokes or to suspect Liszt of having caused them. He urges Wagner to publish the completed Nibelung poems without delay while the score is being finished, promises to do everything possible for a future production wherever it can be managed, states the terms under which he could assist a Berlin Tannhauser performance, and reports active Weimar plans for The Flying Dutchman and other repertory.
September 8, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	1,173	Wagner says his health has again collapsed and that even writing is torture, but he reports that the Berlin Tannhauser question remains unsettled and that he has tried to dispel Hulsen's misunderstanding by stressing confidence while asking only for a clear recognition of the opera's difficult position there. He sends Liszt printed performance instructions for Tannhauser, then turns passionately against the recasting of old works, arguing that Berlioz, Raff, and all serious artists must create something genuinely new rather than keep trying to revive earlier efforts.
September 12, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	514	Wagner follows his previous outburst with a calmer letter asking Liszt to forward a letter, pamphlets, and a score of Lohengrin to Rockel through Rockel's wife, giving the imprisoned friend priority over another recipient. He also asks Liszt to return the score of the Faust overture and the old Lohengrin staging instructions and designs so that he can revise, publish, and prepare improved materials for future productions, and he ends by asking again for news and for some of Liszt's own compositions.
September 12, 1852	Richard Wagner	August Rockel	Zurich	447	Wagner tells the imprisoned Röckel that his health and nerves suffer from imaginative life without satisfying reality, forcing him to abandon journalism and work slowly on a vast artistic plan: three dramas and a prelude to be called The Ring of the Nibelungs. He hopes eventually to send Röckel books, especially Feuerbach and Daumer's Hafiz, whose Eastern serenity and joy make European culture seem poor and suggest an individual path amid world disintegration.
September 25, 1852	Richard Wagner	Robert Franz	Zurich	866	Wagner thanks Robert Franz for friendship that renewed his artistic will, yet confesses that broken health and modern public art make him long to abandon an artistic life that cannot satisfy his need for love. He reflects that like-minded artists can mostly share dissatisfaction and theory because true presentation is nearly impossible, dismisses forthcoming Tannhäuser performances as likely misunderstandings, and urges Franz to visit Switzerland with Uhlig and continue sending songs.
September 28, 1852	Richard Wagner	Francisca Wagner	Zurich	326	Wagner asks Francisca for details of Johanna's Paris contract and whether she can require the right to appear in Tannhäuser there. He says Meyerbeer's attacks have made him newly interesting in Paris, rejects writing a French opera, but would consider a well-translated Grand Opéra Tannhäuser with Roger and Johanna as both an artistic opportunity and a direct challenge to Meyerbeer that might restore his failing health.
October 3, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	514	Wagner is relieved to know he has not offended Liszt and anxiously asks whether anything he wrote about Berlioz or Raff was misunderstood, since he insists his intentions, especially toward Berlioz, were good. He adds that the Berlin Tannhauser plan is now settled for later rehearsal, that Paris possibilities are still being talked over by Belloni and others, that his Tannhauser instructions have frightened Leipzig away but revived Wiesbaden, and that his solitude and strained nerves make him think of going to Paris for the winter even as he pushes slowly on with the next poem.
October 3, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	144	Wagner tells Liszt that Belloni's visit and talk of Paris show Liszt still imagining world-conquering plans for him. He does not reject a French Tannhäuser translation, especially with Herwegh interested in a vivid prose version, but says he cannot yet take it seriously and notes that his production preface has deterred Leipzig while prompting Schindelmeisser to restudy the opera in Wiesbaden.
October 7, 1852	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	1,285	Liszt clarifies that Berlioz is not rewriting Cellini but only consenting to a major cut, thanks Wagner for the offer of Wieland, and assures him that nothing he wrote about other composers has shaken Liszt's love or understanding. He returns the Faust overture with some candid musical criticism, reports another successful Lohengrin in Weimar, urges Wagner to publish similar staging pamphlets for Lohengrin and The Flying Dutchman, and repeats that he will go to Berlin on Wagner's behalf only if Hulsen formally invites him and gives him real authority over the rehearsals and performance.
October 13, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	279	Wagner tells Liszt that he has accepted Liszt's offer and has now asked Hulsen plainly to invite Liszt to Berlin to represent him for the performance of Tannhauser. He says he has done everything he can to make the request a matter of personal feeling and friendship, and he hopes Liszt will consent willingly for his sake if Hulsen agrees.
October 13, 1852	Richard Wagner	Francisca Wagner	Zurich	477	Wagner reassures Francisca that Paris matters to him only as a possible good performance, not fame, but then bitterly attacks Johanna's dependence on Meyerbeer and the family idea of her “good” as money and reputation rather than service to a noble cause. He says Lohengrin in Berlin would matter deeply, especially because Elsa was written for Johanna, and confesses that disloyalty from loved ones wounds him more than anything.
October 28, 1852	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	535	Wagner offers Breitkopf and Härtel his modernized arrangement of Gluck's Iphigenia in Aulis, explaining how he revised text, form, instrumentation, transitions, and the ending to restore the opera to living theatrical effectiveness rather than antiquarian interest. He also proposes publication of a revised Faust Overture, which Liszt has revived successfully and which Wagner now sees as one of his best purely instrumental works for reaching the German concert public.
November 9, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	1,478	Wagner tells Liszt in deep frustration that Hulsen has refused to invite him to Berlin with the authority Wagner considered essential, and he now sees that the whole Berlin Tannhauser affair has been handled in a spirit of routine that entirely misses what the work requires. The disappointment drives him into one of his darkest confessions of isolation and exhaustion, even as he explains the true nature of the unfinished Faust overture as a solitary Faust without Gretchen and reports that the Nibelung cycle is now fully laid out under the title The Ring of the Nibelung, though he fears he may abandon composition altogether if his life remains artistically starved.
November 9, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	710	Wagner tells Liszt that Zurich is destroying him and begs for help securing a return to Germany without humiliating submission to Saxony, because only artistic work still sustains him and even that is starving without a proper environment. He explains the Faust Overture as “Faust in Solitude,” lacking the feminine Gretchen movement he never wrote, and reports finishing the new Ring poems while warning that if Germany remains closed he may abandon art rather than compose the Nibelung music under such conditions.
December 18, 1852	Richard Wagner	Robert Franz	Zurich	277	Wagner tells Robert Franz that he has just completed the full Nibelung drama amid an intense but physically punishing burst of work, with his nerves allowing only brief daily efforts followed by long recovery. He has only sampled Franz's songs but expects them to refresh him musically before he begins composing the Nibelung dramas, once he finishes performance introductions for The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin.
December 22, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	87	Wagner urgently asks Liszt to send at once to Uhlig in Dresden the corrected score of The Flying Dutchman from which the Weimar copy was revised. He says Breslau has long been waiting for such a corrected copy and promises that his own remarks on the performance will follow the next week.
December 24, 1852	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	97	Wagner writes again to stress the urgency of sending the model score of The Flying Dutchman to Dresden, since a second theatre, Schwerin, is now also pressing him for a copy he cannot provide. He apologizes for burdening Liszt with such business matters but says there is no one else in Weimar to turn to and adds that he longs intensely for a letter from him.
December 27, 1852	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	1,712	Liszt apologizes for his silence, says Wagner's suffering has deeply moved him, and promises a visit to Zurich the following summer while urging Wagner to keep all distractions away from the Nibelung work. He reports a decisive Weimar success with the restored full finale and revised close of Tannhauser, describes ambitious plans for new performances of The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, and especially Lohengrin with Tichatschek if possible, and also discusses Berlin, future festival possibilities, and some practical publishing questions about piano arrangements drawn from Wagner's operas.
December 29, 1852	Richard Wagner	Julie Ritter	Zurich	447	Wagner asks Julie Ritter whether her family's support is temporary or lifelong because only secure independence would let him use opera profits to buy a small plot of land without pressuring theatres for performances regardless of quality. He says Wesendonck has offered to advance the purchase money but that Julie's income is what truly preserves his artistic freedom, while his isolated surroundings force his communicative nature inward and worsen his health.
December 30, 1852	Richard Wagner	Cecilie Avenarius	Zurich	334	Wagner tells Cecilie Avenarius that most of his friendships feel Philistine and false to his true self, leaving him in loneliness and emotional starvation despite his greater receptivity to women. He describes severe nervous exhaustion that limits him to two hours of work followed by enforced rest, yet says he has finished the great Nibelung drama and hopes to begin its music in spring if he can find outside stimulus.
January 8, 1853	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	320	Wagner asks Liszt to determine exactly which corrected score of The Flying Dutchman is in use at Weimar, since the overture ending and another bar were substantially revised and Breslau needs the proper version. Depending on what Liszt finds, he asks him either to send the corrected score at once to Dresden or to notify Fischer so that the necessary materials for the important alterations can be supplied.
January 8, 1853	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	79	Wagner asks Liszt whether his copy of The Flying Dutchman includes the revisions Wagner made the previous year, especially the altered instrumentation of the overture's closing movement. He explains that Uhlig had reported sending Liszt both the score with this change and another containing revisions to the rest of the instrumentation.
January 9, 1853	Richard Wagner	Theodore Uhlig	Zurich	235	Wagner writes in grief after the death of a close friend, saying the loss feels like being robbed of half his own soul and that he can barely grasp its magnitude. He asks the bereaved woman how he can help, especially regarding the children and his godson Siegfried, and urges her to include him in decisions about their future as the departed friend would have wished.
January 12, 1853	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	327	Liszt explains that the corrected Flying Dutchman score Wagner seeks is actually Liszt's own presentation copy, which had been confused with the theatre materials after several earlier exchanges and Uhlig's mistaken assumptions. Now that Wagner's latest letter has clarified the issue, Liszt promises to have the theatre score corrected from his copy at once and then to send his own corrected score on to Fischer in Dresden.
January 13, 1853	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	871	Wagner reports that Berlin has again delayed Tannhauser behind other works, so he has treated the matter as an insult, demanded the return of his score, and resolved to have no further direct dealings there. He now formally places all future Berlin relations for his operas entirely in Liszt's hands, urges him to work through the Prince and Princess of Prussia rather than through Hulsen, mentions new prospects in Leipzig and Frankfurt, and sends yet another important correction for the close of The Flying Dutchman overture.
No letters found.

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