As far as I can gather from various sources, you intend to offer the Berlin public Herr Lachner's very popular grand opera, Catarina Cornaro, as the first brilliant item upon your newly selected repertoire. Every German artist will recognise this arrangement as thoroughly worthy of you and of the institution you direct. To stage this important work worthily, however, I feel sure, from my knowledge of the condition of the Berlin Opera when it was made over to you, that very considerable preparations, purchases, etc. will have to be made. In the meantime a comparatively modest little work like mine, The Flying Dutchman, might well be embodied in an interim repertoire and I would ask you to take into account that the reason I suggest this possibility is that my opera, on account of its brevity, is not intended to fill a whole evening but to be given in the Opera House at any rate with a short play, could seem to have no pretensions to a leading role on your repertoire. It could be offered very simply as a little novelty and if it should happen to please, well and good for everyone. I may say in favour of such an arrangement that musical rehearsals of my opera would require a minimum of time and trouble, since it is short, has practically no big ensembles and, apart from a few small choruses, consists almost wholly of numbers which the individual singers can easily rehearse for themselves. Furthermore, the present members of the Berlin Opera are quite sufficient to fill the few roles of my Flying Dutchman. The scenic effects at the last change of scene may perhaps need some attention, but I should have thought that a first performance of my opera could easily be achieved in the course of September, or even towards the end of August.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 70