I have been occupied with a paper which is to be entitled The Nature of Opera. In it I intend to speak clearly and definitely on the subject of opera as a type of art, and to indicate as conclusively as possible what should be done to bring the germ within it to full flower. I should have liked to dedicate this paper to you, because in it I proclaim the redemption and justification of the musician as musician. I would do it if I did not think it wiser to leave you still uncommitted as regards this present harangue of mine to our musical world. I know that by so doing I leave you freer.
But because in this paper I want to argue the nature of the musical drama according to my own view of it, nothing can disturb me more at the moment than to see highly contradictory views once again advanced against me publicly by intelligent writers. What an illogical false priest the world must take me for, if I preach the drama with words while at the same time my works, they are told, are full of musical confusion and noise! I am just going to do battle again with my deadly enemy Winter! I have to consider sparing my health a good deal and so shall probably not be able to work on Siegfried to my heart's desire till the spring. But it shall be finished during the summer. I am not thinking of anything beyond this for the present.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 188