Would you some time give me exact information as to whether Johanna has already concluded a contract with Paris, and if so when she enters upon it? In case she has not yet absolutely concluded it, tell me if you think she could be induced to insist on the insertion of a clause in the proposed contract to the effect that she makes it a condition to appear under certain circumstances in Tannhäuser, among other things, in Paris. It is like this. Through Meyerbeer's stupidity, he having recently written a host of scribblings to decry me in Paris, I have suddenly become famous, or at any rate a matter of great interest there. It is now being hinted to me in that quarter that they are setting about offering me a contract to write an opera for Paris. I will not and I cannot hear of this, as the very last thing I will do is to compose on foreign libretti, least of all in the French language. On the other hand I cannot have the same objection to letting them have Tannhäuser well translated and produced at the Grand Opera, once I am assured of a good performance. This really is a possibility with Roger as Tannhäuser and Johanna. Roger would make the most charming Tannhäuser in the world, far better than Tichatschek, for instance. In the first place I am attracted by the idea of a good production, while the prospect of a terrific but also great and uncommonly effective fight with Meyerbeer arouses my naughty temper. Besides, an absorbing activity, connected with an immediate and interesting performance, ought to be very good for my health, which in my present situation is rapidly approaching complete breakdown. This, then, is a matter in which Johanna's action may be decisive if she takes the lists with vigour on my behalf and really frees herself from her state of subjection to Meyerbeer in Paris.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 227