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 in January (73 total)

Date	From	To	Place	Words	Subject
January 21, 1836	Richard Wagner	Theodore Apel	Magdeburg	390	Wagner reports disciplined work in Magdeburg, saying he has abstained from wine, completed the composition of Das Liebesverbot by New Year's Eve, and is now orchestrating through the nights for a planned February premiere. Facing creditors before any honorarium arrives, he asks Apel to advance money by buying the receipts of the opera's second performance, while stressing his estrangement from family and reliance on Minna.
January 3, 1843	Richard Wagner	Robert Schumann	Dresden	149	Wagner tells Schumann with joy that The Flying Dutchman has achieved a triumphant first performance in Dresden, a success he values even more than Rienzi because it follows a new artistic path. He says the immediate audience acclaim exceeded expectations, with enthusiastic calls after the later acts and a particularly powerful performance by Devrient.
January 5, 1843	Richard Wagner	Cecilie Avenarius	Dresden	457	Wagner tells Cecilie that Lüttichau has offered a Dresden post only after a lower-paid probationary year, which he has refused because he will sacrifice freedom only for a truly significant appointment. He describes Devrient's generous 1000-thaler loan for Paris and Magdeburg debts, notes Rienzi's continued success through a plan to divide it over two evenings, and discusses bringing Natalie to Dresden before sending her to Zwickau.
January 9, 1843	Richard Wagner	J. R. Samuel Schmidt	Dresden	247	Wagner gives J. R. Samuel Schmidt an account of The Flying Dutchman after its third Dresden performance, stressing how sharply its simple saga-based dramatic design differs from Rienzi and from conventional opera. He contrasts his treatment with a French plagiarism that he says spoiled the legend with stock episodes, and expresses delight that a work he expected audiences to need time to understand won immediate success.
January 27, 1843	Richard Wagner	Robert Schumann	Dresden	351	Wagner sends Schumann the score of The Flying Dutchman before forwarding it to Berlin, hoping Schumann will grasp his artistic direction and perhaps write about it, while proposing an exchange of scores and criticism between them. He also reports that he now belongs in Dresden as kapellmeister on full salary, criticizes Berlin's artistic demoralization, and asks about Leipzig and its music school.
January 8, 1844	Richard Wagner	Minna Wagner	Berlin	525	Wagner gives Minna a vivid account of The Flying Dutchman's Berlin performance, describing his initial anxiety before an unfamiliar audience and the gradual transformation of curiosity into overwhelming enthusiasm by the second act. He celebrates the singers, orchestra, staging, royal approval, and warm congratulations from Mendelssohn, while noting forthcoming social meetings with Meyerbeer and Kistner.
January 10, 1844	Richard Wagner	Felix Mendelssohn	Berlin	33	Wagner writes affectionately to Mendelssohn after his Berlin visit, expressing pleasure that Mendelssohn feels kindly toward him. He says that coming somewhat closer to Mendelssohn has been the happiest event of the entire trip.
January 30, 1844	Richard Wagner	Karl Gaillard	Dresden	563	Wagner explains to Karl Gaillard why he writes his own libretti, arguing that his musical and poetic conception arises together and that composing another person's text would divide the act of inspiration. He distinguishes opera from spoken drama by assigning opera to legendary, musically transformable subjects, and presents Tannhäuser, joined with the Wartburg song contest, as the kind of material only a musician could properly handle.
January 9, 1845	Richard Wagner	Max von Weber	Dresden	149	Wagner writes on Minna's behalf, asking the recipient to forgive her delayed reply as a result of her dread of letter-writing rather than any coolness of feeling. He warmly invites the visit with both children and, if necessary, the nurse, adding that Natalie is staying with them and could help care for the little ones.
January 1, 1847	Richard Wagner	Edward Hanslick	Dresden	923	Wagner thanks Hanslick for a favorable and serious essay on Tannhäuser, while describing how painfully exposed he feels before both praise and blame and explaining his aim to create complete dramatic beings whose poetry, music, and stage realization are inseparable. He discusses the Song Contest as evidence of opera's higher possibilities, measures his experiments against Gluck, Mozart, Spontini, and Weber, and rejects Hanslick's admiration for Meyerbeer as an example of superficial operatic effect divorced from spiritual substance.
January 4, 1848	Richard Wagner	Johann Kittl	Dresden	999,999	Wagner reassures Johann Kittl that he is not pursuing a Berlin kapellmeistership and has dealt there only with Kistner, managers, and singers. He says he would prefer remaining kapellmeister in Dresden unless he could live on a modest pension for study, and notes that although Hennig may be near retirement, Lachner is rumored as the likely Berlin candidate through Kistner.
January 30, 1848	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Dresden	148	Wagner sends Liszt his Faust overture after hearing that Liszt wants it, despite his own dissatisfaction with the piece. He gives Liszt permission to use it as he sees fit, while asking to have the manuscript returned from time to time and commiserating with the burdens of conducting.
January 14, 1849	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Dresden	318	Wagner thanks Liszt for his continuing interest and reflects anxiously on the difficulty of producing Tannhauser, whose success he thinks depends on unusually capable performers and on Liszt's leadership. He also reports that he is living in reduced circumstances with little hope, though he remains determined to endure and is willing to forgo any honorarium connected with the Weimar plans.
January 17, 1849	Richard Wagner	Baron Vox Biedexfeld	Dresden	592	Wagner explains to Biedenfeld that opera should not use dramatic spectacle merely to fix catchy melodies in memory, but should aim at the complete dramatic artwork enriched by music. Using Beethoven's expansion of orchestral expression and the Song Tournament in Tannhäuser as evidence, he argues that the modern music dramatist must serve drama through the full resources of music, even if his own powers may fall short of that intention.
January 14, 1850	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	591	Liszt sends Wagner five hundred francs for his Paris journey and strongly endorses his plan of remaining artistically himself while addressing Paris and, if possible, London. He urges Wagner to persevere through the transition, promises to seek London contacts, and reports current Weimar work including Iphigenia in Aulis and another performance of Tannhauser.
January 3, 1851	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Eilsen	509	Liszt agrees to help with the Brussels proposal for Lohengrin and advises Wagner to accept it only on the firm condition that he himself may revise the translation and attend the general rehearsals, since otherwise the work could easily be compromised. He also updates Wagner on Weimar plans, says he will publish the Herder festival piece with the Lohengrin analysis, declines to take on Wieland because he has resolved not to write a German opera, and urges Wagner to complete Siegfried and keep courage.
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.
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.
January 23, 1853	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	541	Liszt accepts with deep emotion Wagner's gift of the three scores, saying they moved him to tears and now rest beside him like treasured relics until they can be worthily performed. He reports that all the Flying Dutchman corrections have been copied into the parts and expects that work to go especially well in Weimar, updates Wagner on Tichatschek and other casting matters, promises the Dutchman honorarium after the first performance, and says he remains ready to justify Wagner's confidence in the Berlin affair whenever the chance comes.
January 8, 1854	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	599	Liszt reports on the first Leipzig performance of Lohengrin, praising the work's public success while judging the execution inferior to Weimar because of weak singers, staging flaws, and overly fast choral tempi. He urges Wagner to respond graciously to Leipzig, notes upcoming Weimar performances and possible casting, commends Tichatschek's loyalty, and mentions that Hartel has sent three hundred thalers for nine pieces from the opera.
January 15, 1854	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	1,456	Wagner tells Liszt that he has finished Das Rheingold but is overwhelmed by despair, financial anxiety, humiliation over the Leipzig Lohengrin performance, and recurring thoughts of suicide. He begs Liszt to secure substantial money or a Berlin arrangement against his opera rights so he can continue living and working, describing the score of Rheingold as the product of fury, suffering, and artistic extremity.
January 15, 1854	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	685	Wagner tells Liszt that Das Rheingold is finished but that he himself is physically, emotionally, and financially exhausted, feeling trapped by an unsuitable marriage, lovelessness, exile, and the need to use art as a makeshift for life. He asks Liszt for urgent help raising several thousand thalers, possibly against future opera income, so he can continue the Nibelung project, describing Rheingold as born in faith but completed in despair and filled with horrors and sublimities.
January 16, 1854	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	332	Wagner thanks Hans von Bülow for news but vents anger over the failed Leipzig Lohengrin, blaming Liszt for not acting as his alter ego with veto power and for avoiding the necessary quarrel with Rietz and the Leipzig authorities. He regrets allowing his operas to be performed at all under such conditions and bitterly notes that Das Rheingold is finished, ironically written for Leipzig.
January 20, 1854	Richard Wagner	Julie Ritter	Zurich	421	Wagner declares his affection for Julie Ritter and says recent productions of his operas have punished him for betraying his own standards, while uncertain profits tempt him into extravagance and disappointment. He describes a luxurious but lonely Zurich routine centered on morning composition, strained domestic rhythms, walks, evenings with the Wesendoncks, dependence on letters, fleeting thoughts of seeking Saxon amnesty or imprisonment, and a return to music as his only course.
January 25, 1854	Richard Wagner	August Rockel	Zurich	2,087	Wagner writes Röckel a long philosophical explanation of freedom as integrity, truth as loving surrender to reality, and love between man and woman as the fullest form of human understanding, linking these ideas to the meaning of the Nibelung drama. He interprets the Ring as a drama of fear, lovelessness, Wotan's willing self-destruction, Siegfried and Brünnhilde's redemptive union, and the restoration of the gold to nature, while noting that Das Rheingold's music has become a tightly motivated unity and imagining a future production with young performers trained over years.
January 26, 1854*	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	1,039	Wagner writes again from a state of intense mental and financial distress, rejecting fantasies of flight to America or political appeals as impractical while insisting that only completion of the Nibelungen gives his life purpose. He implores Liszt to arrange a friendly sale of his opera rights or other decisive help, warning that without outside intervention he may collapse entirely under suffering and nervous illness.
January 1, 1855	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	506	Liszt sends Wagner new year's wishes, says he has published brief notice of Rheingold to stir public interest, promises to forward the score for copying, and advises cautious patience about Wagner's possible London engagement. He also reports on conditions at Weimar, the completion of his Faust Symphony, and his hope of bringing it to Zurich the following summer.
January 19, 1855	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	800	Wagner tells Liszt that he has accepted the conductorship of the old Philharmonic Society in London, less from artistic desire than from financial necessity and the hope that it may open a path toward staging his own works there. He outlines the terms and schedule of the engagement, discusses his revised Faust Overture and his reaction to Liszt's article on Rheingold, and asks Liszt both for clearer replies to practical questions and for a visit in London.
January 19, 1855	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	363	Wagner tells Liszt that Anderson has arranged for him to conduct eight London Philharmonic concerts from March to June 1855, a role he dislikes but accepts as a possible path toward winning English support for German opera and his own Lohengrin under his conductorship. He eagerly anticipates Liszt's completed Faust, reports a major revision and reorchestration of his own Faust Overture for Zurich performance, and closes with a bleak poetic confession of inward love and longing for death.
January 22, 1855*	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Zurich	28	No summary available.
January 23, 1855	Richard Wagner	Mathilde Wesendonck	Zurich	427	No summary available.
January 25, 1855	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	908	Liszt warmly approves Wagner's London appointment, recommends Klindworth to him, reports on recent productions at Gotha and Weimar, and asks practical questions about singers and scores. He also praises the idea of Tristan, requests the revised Faust Overture for performance, advises Wagner to establish himself patiently in London before pushing his own works there, and warns him against theatrical speculators.
January 3, 1856*	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	339	Wagner writes from renewed illness, asks Liszt to return the first two acts of Die Walkure so they can be copied by a newly found amanuensis, and says he now views the failure of the published Faust Overture as a deserved and purifying punishment. He rejects Liszt's worldly Christianity as self-contradictory and can offer neither a proper letter nor the requested album entry because his head is too confused.
January 10, 1856	Richard Wagner	Karl Klindworth	Zurich	153	Writing to Klindworth, Wagner confirms that he has sent the score of Das Rheingold and will soon send the last act of Die Walküre for piano arrangement, hoping it can be completed by Easter. He thanks Klindworth for an earlier package, says he is resuming work with hopes of finishing in February, and notes Liszt's telegram that Tannhäuser has gone fairly well in Berlin.
January 14, 1856	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	Weimar	892	This entry combines Liszt's delighted Berlin telegram after the first Tannhauser performance with a fuller letter praising Johanna Wagner, Formes, Dorn, the staging, and the scenic splendor, while also noting a few musical reservations about tempo and orchestral scale. He hopes Wagner may one day see such a production himself, returns the first two acts of Die Walkure, asks permission to print Wagner's Iphigenia in Aulis ending in a new Gluck edition, and sends renewed sympathy for his illness and suffering.
January 18, 1856	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	984	Wagner asks Liszt with painful frankness whether he can provide one thousand francs at once and an annual allowance for two more years, since his income remains insufficient for life in Zurich and his wife needs more security than his precarious finances allow. He also proposes that a small group of supporters might fund a salaried copyist for the Ring project, laments the missed meeting, complains about the vulgar fate of Tannhauser in Berlin, and says that only living near or with Liszt seems capable of enabling his future work.
January 1, 1857	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	451	Liszt, himself ill again, sends New Year greetings and says that the hope of serving Wagner and perhaps living with him soon remains one of the few cheerful elements in his life. He reports that the Grand Duke still thinks nothing can yet be done, says he has written to the Prince of Prussia on Wagner's behalf, advises against further humiliating petitions for the moment, and adds some Weimar performance news before returning to his longing for work and reunion.
January 6, 1857	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	327	Writing to Liszt, Wagner explains that he has definitively renounced the Ritter family income after breaking with Karl Ritter, leaving him suddenly short of 1,500 francs needed for New Year bills and debt repayment. He therefore turns to Liszt's authority in the stalled Härtel negotiations over The Nibelungs, hoping for an immediate advance while noting that Saxony will grant amnesty only when it chooses.
January 25, 1857	Richard Wagner	Albert Niemann	Zurich	205	Writing to Albert Niemann, Wagner says reports of the singer make him hope he has found the long-sought performer for Siegfried, a crucial role in the work still under composition. He projects readiness for performance by summer 1859 if illness does not interrupt him and urges Niemann to preserve his voice and strength for the demanding artistic task ahead.
January 27, 1857	Franz Liszt	Richard Wagner	—	1,007	This composite entry gathers Wagner's urgent financial and personal appeals: he presses Liszt to resolve the Hartel negotiations or secure a definite Weimar subsidy, because he has now lost the annual allowance from the R. family and can no longer live in uncertainty. He also asks Liszt to help a promising young tenor make his debut at Weimar, reports renewed headaches and collapse after sketching the first act of Siegfried, and says that only Liszt remains his true comfort.
January 27, 1857	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	—	621	Wagner explains that Wesendonck has finally bought the little country house and will lease it to him, making it all the more important that he establish an independent income for the next few years, ideally through the sale of the Ring to Hartel on terms of roughly one thousand thalers per score. He says he has finished the first act of Siegfried, hopes soon to orchestrate it, and sends affectionate, symbolic messages through Liszt to the Princess and her daughter.
January 27, 1857	Richard Wagner	Franz Liszt	Zurich	165	Writing to Liszt, Wagner reports that after finishing the rough draft of Siegfried Act I he has been unable to compose because agonizing headaches drive him from work. He contrasts the relative ease of Das Rheingold with the strain of Die Walküre and fears that forcing Siegfried through his exhausted nervous system may finally break him.
January 31, 1857	Richard Wagner	Otto Wesendonck	Zurich	194	Writing to Otto Wesendonck, Wagner says Wesendonck's confidential news interrupted him while composing Siegfried's smithy music, but gladly sacrifices the day because it promises future days of freer work. He responds with intense gratitude, saying the gift matters less as property than as proof of friendship and care that suddenly lifts his burdens.
No letters found.

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