The Dresden general management have commissioned me to send them with all speed the score of my other opera, The Flying Dutchman, as they intend to put it on at once, immediately after Rienzi. As it is in a quite special genre, the purely romantic, and can be rehearsed very rapidly I have agreed, and it will be produced by the beginning of December, anyhow earlier than in Berlin where Lachner's opera has to come on first before they can proceed to mine. If only I could transfer the performance of my opera from Dresden to Leipzig!
To my dear ones in Paris! Which of you in particular shall I write to? Shall I give each of you a certain piece of the news? Shall I pretend I have a secret to impart to the one which the other is to know nothing of? Call the holy Council of Five together, give Cecilie the honour of precedence - you owe her that in any case as the only woman among you - and hear how it goes with your brother. The most remarkable thing to me is the endurance of the public. I cut it as short as possible, yet the opera lasts till ten-thirty and as far as we know there has not been an empty place at any performance. Everyone has listened with absolutely rapt attention till the last fall of the curtain. And that means something in Dresden. While I was busy with the cutting down I made some odd discoveries. The singers said, "Yes, it is dreadfully trying," but no one wanted anything cut out. I begged Tichatschek on my knees to let something be taken out of his terribly exacting part but no possibility! Always the same answer, "No, it is too heavenly. It is too heavenly!" After all this I was really excited about my honorarium. Everyone guessed fabulous totals; now the takings for the first three performances were to be mine, now I was to have 2000 thalers in no time, and so on. Instead of all this, after the third performance I got a letter from His Excellency stating in the most flattering terms that for my most excellent and beautiful work he sent me an honorarium of 300 thalers, although the usual honorarium for an opera is only 20 louis d'or; he could, however, not resist making an exception in my case as an additional means of assuring me of his thanks. You see, then, how it is as long as one has to leave such things to the generosity of a manager. My one comfort is that I know a change is coming and another time on a similar occasion I shall be able to make demands. Well, my dear children, with these my first takings I cannot help anyone very much, for firstly I must at once pay my debts to Brockhaus out of it, secondly my old Magdeburg creditors are threatening me with actions and I shall have to quiet them as well as I can. Then our own personal equipment, shirts, underlinen, etc., is in an indescribable condition and urgently calls for renewals, etc. But after such a fabulous success it is unthinkable that my finances should remain where they are. I hope soon at least to be able to sell the score in certain other places and I shall not long lack a good publisher who will pay me properly. With these expectations, which are certainly not frivolous, I hope to console you and my Parisian creditors for a short while longer and I promise to allot my next takings exclusively to them! It is unthinkable that I shall have to await them long. So, with a good conscience, you can comfort anyone you see pining after me.
To my brother, Albert Wagner, Ballenstadt. Every day I get business letters and many of them are ... Formerly no crow crowed after me, but now I can see no way out of it, particularly as my friends assure me I ought to go everywhere. In short I am "the mode" here. The demand for me has been brought to a higher pitch by the sudden death of poor old Rastrelli. All eyes at once looked to me as his successor in office. It has been spoken of at Court and Luttichau has had me sounded. I am still very much in two minds, as I would naturally like to remain free for the next few years. I am now at my prime, with my creative powers at their freshest. I have already drafted two new operatic subjects and could compose them within two years if I remained free. I assert that I would willingly buy this freedom at the price of a few pecuniary troubles, and, besides, I can now rely on making many a nice little sum out of my two finished operas. Really, things move very slowly and deliberately with us here in Germany. I am too great a surprise to all the theatres, and I shall have to wait a little longer before they find time to put me into their repertoires. Meanwhile, though I am already snapping up a bit here and there, my old debts hang about my neck, particularly the Magdeburg debts, and I can see that the time of freedom from money difficulties is still far ahead. Consequently, a few days ago, I spoke my mind to Luttichau and told him that while it had been my personal wish to remain free as yet, I found something very alluring in the prospect of having so exceptional an ensemble at my disposition for high artistic ventures as the Dresden Opera offered me, and so could the more easily abandon my previous resolution. Since, however, a subordinate standing, such as Rastrelli occupied, afforded no such prospect, I could not consider the vacant post. Hereupon Luttichau declared that he had no intention of making a fresh appointment upon the terms under which Rastrelli had held the post. He could no longer rely confidently upon Reissiger on account of his slackness and ineptitude, so he proposed to appoint a second kapellmeister, a colleague with at least equal privileges. So now I stand like Hercules at the parting of the ways. Everyone who has merely my material well-being in view will naturally say "Take it!" But is that really all there is to it? How are the children getting on? I often talk of you and Johanna here. Let me have Johanna's repertoire in writing. All kinds of people make their debuts and try their fortunes here. Why shouldn't a beginner, who promises so much under your tuition, attract notice? Well, time brings wisdom.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 76