Tristan and Isolde is in any case to be first produced in the earlier part of next winter season, that is to say at the end of this year. I still hope this may take place under my own personal direction at Karlsruhe. Hitherto I have carefully limited the public knowledge of my project, but at the right moment I shall notify the theatres and, in view of the measure of popularity now mine, assume that a new work of mine which is easy to perform ought to spread quickly through the German theatres even in the first winter. For the realisation of this assumption it is indispensable that the score should be in print as soon as possible, and for this reason alone I must no longer delay in coming to some arrangement about the publication of my opera.
You will probably have conjectured already that I should first approach you and your esteemed firm in this matter, and accordingly I herewith offer you Tristan and Isolde for publication. It will be less difficult this time, I hope, to determine the conditions of the publishing rights of my work, as there is here no question of the unusual and dubious circumstances necessarily attendant on the publication of my Nibelung tetralogy offered to you previously. From the enclosed transcript of the poem which I would ask you to read through, you will perceive at once that I am offering a work more practicable and easier for theatrical production than any of my earlier operas. Instead of attaching difficult conditions to its circulation, my idea this time is to make things attractive and easy. The warm interest of my subject, its happy adaptation to a melodious flow in musical treatment, the effective leading roles, which should rapidly take their place among the most inviting parts open to our sopranos and tenors, all this satisfies me that, without having especially sought it, I have gone the right way to work to secure a remarkable popular success. Be so good as to tell me frankly then, dear Sir, whether you and your brother feel able to strike this bargain speedily and upon the best possible terms for me?
You will probably wish me to make a definite demand. As we should here find ourselves faced with the same difficulty as in my proffer of the Nibelungs, I will rely this time on the fact that it was not so much the amount of my demand as the matter for sale to which you then objected. At that time I asked five hundred louis d'or for each individual work; with far greater confidence that my demands are not exaggerated, I believe that I may somewhat raise my terms for Tristan and accordingly suggest to you an honorarium for me of six hundred louis d'or, or twelve thousand francs, which I must request shall be paid me in full and in cash by the completion of the work, that is to say, a third part, 4000 francs, at delivery of the score of each of the three acts. The following would then have to be decided on as regards the publication. The score should appear in print, and the printing commenced immediately upon delivery of the manuscript, which can be divided for delivery into suitable batches so that the edition should be ready almost directly after the completion of the manuscript. With special confidence, I have entrusted Herr von Bülow with the making of the pianoforte arrangement. It will be a model of its kind and, above all, not difficult.
I have it particularly in mind to make the libretto lucrative and therefore wish it to be dealt with as follows. Upon the assumption that I am offering no common operatic libretto but a poem which need not fear comparison with the poetic products of our literary period, I wish in the course of the summer, that is to say as soon as I am quite satisfied as to my plan of composition and there are no more textual alterations to be made, to have published a handsome edition of 2000 copies by means of which it may be sufficiently circulated through educated circles in Germany, which probably await a new work of mine after so long an interval with considerable anticipation, to prepare the way adequately for the appearance of the opera on the boards. Then there must be a cheaper stereotype edition provided at a lower price, to be sold as libretti for theatrical use.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 344