Dearest Richard,
I have come to a close of my stay at Munich, and want to send you a few short notes of it before returning to Weymar, which will happen tomorrow evening. First of all about the performance of Tannhäuser, which took place last Sunday (apart from the subscription nights) for the benefit of the Munich poor. The Princess had taken two boxes, which we occupied together with Kaulbach, E. Forster, Liebig, Carriere, and others. The scenery and dresses are brilliant, but probably you would not like them particularly, and I, for my part, think them mannered and pretentious. In the orchestra the wind (especially flutes, clarinets, and bassoon) is excellent. The violins and double basses (six in number) are a little hazy, and lack the necessary energy, both in bowing, which is short and easy-going, and in rhythm. The pianos and crescendos are insufficient, and for the same reason there is no fulness in the fortes. Lachner has, no doubt, studied the score with the greatest accuracy and care, for which thanks and praise are due to him. But in the drama, as you know and say best, "we must become wise by means of feeling." "Reason tells us so it is, only after feeling has told us so it must be;" and as far as I can tell, Lachner's feeling says little about Tannhäuser, although he was called several times before the curtain at the first performances.
The part of Tannhäuser was sung by Herr Jung, the husband of Lucile Gran. He succeeded, in my opinion, better than the public here seemed to think, which is, as a rule, somewhat lukewarm and stolid. Frau Dietz, whose figure and personality do not particularly fit her for Elizabeth, sang the beginning of the second act with intelligence and feeling, but in the last act she was no longer up to the mark, and the prayer in the third act was applauded as if it had been The Last Rose of Summer. Kindermann's voice is splendid, but there is no trace of Wolfram about him. Still less was Fraulein X. able to identify herself with Venus, whom she seemed to conceive as an ideal Munich barmaid. Lindemann, the Landgrave, you know, from Hamburg; his voice is as powerful as ever, and he might, later on, serve you as Fafner or Fasolt. Apropos, your X. is a perfect madman, and I should certainly not advise you to have anything to do with a man like him. He asked me to attend a vocal practice of his pupils, when the poor people had to shout nothing but four or five notes do, de, da! X. has entirely surrendered himself to his monomania of method, which to him has become a kind of dram-drinking. His circumstances are in a very bad way, and I am told that he keeps himself alive chiefly by acting as clerk in a tailor's business here. This, of course, is by no means to his discredit, and I think, on the contrary, that he would do much better to give up his method, and take to tailoring ex professo.
Our concert at St. Gallen has not been without an echo at Munich, and Lachner, with whom I lived on friendly terms, proposed to me soon after my arrival to write for the parts of the two Symphonic Poems to St. Gallen, so as to have them played during my stay at the subscription concerts. I thanked him politely for the distinction intended for me, and reserved to myself the permission of making use of it another time. At the theatre I heard Clemenza di Tito (the festival opera on the King's birthday), Jessonda, The Prophet, and Tannhäuser; at the subscription concert the D minor symphony by Lachner, his fourth, if I am not mistaken. Lohengrin is promised, that is, they are talking about it; but amongst the present artists one would have to search for Ortrud with a lantern. The Munich public is more or less neutral, more observing and listening than sympathetic. The Court does not take the slightest interest in music, but H.M. the King spoke to me about Tannhäuser as something that had pleased him. Dingelstedt complains of the impossibility of giving importance to the drama, and gives two or three operas every week for the sake of the receipts. Kaulbach and I have become sincere friends. He is the right sort of fellow who will please you too, for the very reason that many people call him intolerable. His designs for Shakespeare's Tempest (Ariel as Capellmeister in the air) are splendid. He must paint your portrait for me later on.
Franz Liszt
Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #4234, Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 2, No. 229