Ah, these cursed cares and worries, they have overwhelmed me and turned my hair prematurely white! As a matter of fact I am well now, and your affectionate trust has made me better still. Surely you saw, dear heart, that I never doubted it; only forgive me the least little scruple. I am still unclear about some things, but I am clear that you possess the most amiable nature in the world and that I recognise it as my most precious acquisition, provided I possess it wholly and it is wholly given to me. I am at peace, at work and industrious, and I am doing well at it, too.
The Columbus overture was lately performed at Gerhardt's concert. It was applauded, but did not appear especially to please the clique which composed the chief part of the public that particular evening. I was dissatisfied with the performance. I conducted it myself and I simply could not get any fire into the people; the close dragged again as it did in Magdeburg. The overture pleased your mother, if she meant what she said. I have a detestable opposition here; the unprejudiced are with me pretty well to a man, but the highest circles are diametrically opposed to me, and I was glad to have this opportunity of teaching them a lesson; they belong to the Stegmayer-Hauser clique. I had intended to pipe up with my opera Das Liebesverbot for the first time here, but I will have it translated into French, revised by Scribe, and produced at the Opera Comique; that is where it belongs, and away out of Germany is where I belong. So I will come back to Magdeburg in the autumn; it is the shortest way out. Woe is me! Things are going well: the committee has taken over the theatre, appointed Bethmann as salaried director and guaranteed salaries; that ought to do.
I am now going to a festival of music at Dessau, then to Magdeburg for a few days, from there to Naumburg and Kosen, where I shall stay a fortnight or so with Laube. I read his Love Letters with great pleasure; they refreshed me. Better prospects all round! Minna came here and stayed here three days in bad weather for my sake, without knowing a single other soul and without any other object than just to please me. That sort of thing is touching; it is remarkable what an influence I have gained over the girl. You should read her letters; they are all fire and, as we both know, that is not her nature. She sends you greeting.
I have resolved to become a complete Epicurean as regards my art; nothing for posterity, but everything for my contemporaries and the moment. Get a thorough hold on these, posterity will follow of itself, but I shall take no notice of it.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 19