My dearest, best-beloved friend,
For your last letter, and especially for your remark about the Faust overture, which has delighted me, I owe you a proper long letter, and must wait until I am in a good mood for it; for I know that only then can my answer give you real pleasure. Today I write you two hurried lines to say that I have accepted your generous offer and, relying on your kindness, have asked Herr von Hulsen in a decided manner that you should be invited to Berlin to take my place at the performance of Tannhäuser. I have, I think, left nothing untried in order to induce Hulsen to overcome any possible difficulties in connection with his own conductors there; I have made it a matter of personal feeling between him and me, just as it is between you and me.
I hope that, if Hulsen consents, his invitation will find you in a good and favourable mood. I know how great this new sacrifice is that I expect of you, and how difficult you will find it to make; but your friendship makes me venture upon anything. Hulsen, who probably will not write to me himself, is to answer me through you; and you also must tell me that you do it willingly for my sake.
Richard Wagner
Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #3835, Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 1, No. 87