My dear good friend! I have won my case triumphantly with Tannhäuser! The second performance was delayed till eight days after the first on account of the hoarseness of several of the singers and that was a bad business, because in the interval misunderstanding, mistaken and stupid opinions, well-nourished by my active foes, had plenty of room to spread, and when the second performance at last came on my opera was really on the point of failure. The house was not very full - opposition! prejudice! Happily the singers had not lost their enthusiasm, understanding dawned, and the somewhat shortened third act, in particular, got well across. After the singers had been called, there was a clamorous demand for me. By now I had a nucleus in the public. The third performance was to a well-filled house, and was enthusiastically received.
Yesterday at last, the fourth performance was played to a house full to bursting. After each act, first the singers and then the author were called, and after the second act there was a regular tumult. Wherever I looked people acclaimed me wildly. Whenever I think of you I feel thoroughly unhappy because I so greatly regret having made you come to that first performance, that unsatisfactory first performance for Tichatschek has been far better, and often excellent, at subsequent performances. How shabbily I entertained you, and how dully and churlishly I met the great sacrifice you made! I am simply crushed to earth when I think of it! I was just like one stunned those days.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 116