I humbly desire Your Excellency graciously to hear the petition I have to make with reference to an opera of my own composition for which I seek the honour of a first performance at the Royal Court Theatre of Berlin. It is a small opera entitled The Flying Dutchman, not designed to occupy a whole evening but rather to be given with a short ballet or little play. I am arranging to have the libretto dispatched to Your Excellency within a few days and can assure you how happy I should think myself if both the idea and the execution of this work should seem worthy of your approbation.
For the rest I cannot but be convinced that my name as a composer is still unknown to Your Excellency and I therefore refer you to Herr Meyerbeer, to whom I have the inestimable good fortune of being personally known. Should Your Excellency be able to grant me the honour I seek, I would humbly ask that the performance be fixed for the late autumn of this year, so that I may send in the fully completed score by the close of the summer.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 59