I am so full of contempt for the theatre as it is at present that, feeling I cannot now do anything to improve it, my dearest wish is to be able to get free of it altogether. You may have heard already that I completely broke with Liittichau some three weeks ago and that from my side there can be no question of reconciliation. Gutzkow was the occasion of it.
Now for a more pleasing communication: being sound and well, I have completed the last two acts of my Lohengrin, have thereby finished the composition of this opera and am very happy about it, for I rejoice in my achievement. If things go well with Rienzi in Berlin, as I hope, Lohengrin will follow there immediately. The King of Prussia has been spending a week in Pillnitz. Those two, and probably the whole Court, must have spoken much of me, however, for the day after a great banquet Liittichau came galloping into the town and ordered everything to be laid aside and Rienzi to be immediately put on, all this, you understand, after my catastrophe. Last Sunday we gave Tannhäuser again to a house full to bursting. The new close went well, for even the visitors who on such occasions usually listen open-mouthed but do not stir a hand became quite animated.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 128