Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2

F >> Francis Hueffer (translator) >> Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 2

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Your hints as to the performances of "Lohengrin", "The Flying
Dutchman", and "Rienzi" in Cassel, Gotha, and other cities will
not be neglected, and I need not assure you again that I shall do
all in my power. First of all you will receive a letter
concerning "Rienzi" from my chief and friend Dingelstedt. The
opera is to be given here in January. Be kind enough to reply to
Dingelstedt's letter with some POLITENESS, and do not be annoyed
at my making this remark. I wish very much to incline Dingelstedt
a little more favourably towards the performance of your works
and to co-operate with him in perfect sympathy. That co-operation
is of importance to me not only as regards "Tristan", which will
meet with no difficulty, and, as I hope and longingly wish, will
open your return to Germany, but chiefly with a view to the
performance of the "Nibelungen," which is our ultimate goal. The
honorarium of 25 louis d'or which our theatrical exchequer can
offer you is very small, but I advise you to accept it, and take
it upon myself to get you a small douceur from the Grand Duke's
privy purse later on.

I should like to have Tichatschek for the first two performances
of "Rienzi", although that would increase the expense
considerably. But I have a great liking for him, and wish to get
him some distinction from the Grand Duke on that occasion.

Last Sunday we gave "Komala" by Sobolewski. I do not know whether
you have seen a small pamphlet "Opera, not Drama," which he
published last year as an introduction to his opera. The
following beautiful comparison occurs in it: "The words are the
hard, transparent pieces of incense, the melody is the beautiful
scent which emerges from the thick clouds of smoke, when the
incense has been lit." In many other things I cannot agree with
him, especially not as regards the marks of punctuation, by means
of which he tries to distinguish himself from you, when at the
end of the pamphlet he exclaims: "Wagner says, OPERA NOT,--DRAMA;
I say OPERA, NOT DRAMA." His "Komala" is better than his comma,
and his practice much better than his theory. There is much in it
that would please you, and has undoubtedly been originated by
"Lohengrin." Sobolewski wrote "Komala" at first in three acts,
and had it done in that form at Bremen. Afterwards, in honour of
operatic theory, and probably persuaded by the critics who thirst
for contrasts and operatic tunes, he added two acts more, in
which he introduced vocal pieces de salon, reminding one of the
Queen in the "Huguenots", and the inevitable drinking chorus. By
his desire I preserved the five acts at the first performance,
but at the second I omitted the two additional ones without any
consideration, or rather, for very good considerations, and shall
even take the liberty of altering his finale, which has been
fashioned after your finale of the second act of "Tannhauser"
("nach Rom"), and after the last act of "Iphigenia in Aulis." In
that manner the work will appear in its only true form, and may
keep its place as a fine musical cloud-and-mist picture in
perfect accord with Ossian's poem. For your private benefit I
send you a few motives from "Komala", which I copied for you.

About the middle of November we shall perform here a comic opera,
"The Barber of Baghdad," founded on a tale from the "Arabian
Nights," words and music by Cornelius. The music is full of wit
and humour, and moves with remarkable self-possession in the
aristrocratic region of art. I expect a very good result.
"Rienzi" will be taken in hand immediately afterwards.

Excuse me for having delayed writing to you so long. I am up to
the ears in all manner of business and correspondence, and have
not had a free hour since my return. Please do not retaliate, and
let me have good news of you soon.

Your

F. LISZT.

November 5th, 1858.

Kindly give the enclosed few lines to Ritter. The additions to
the "Dante" symphony and to the Gran Mass will be ready before
Christmas, and I shall send you both together.

275.

VENICE, November 21st, 1858.

MY DEAR FRANZ,

Many thanks for your kind letter; I had nothing particular to
tell you, or would have replied to you sooner. In addition to
this I was ill during the whole first half of November, which was
more than I had bargained for, especially as it interrupted my
work in the most unpleasant manner. Now I am well again and all
will be right. I am looking forward to the Mass and "Dante" which
you promise to send to me. Mind you keep your word. I have asked
the Hartels to send you proof sheets of the first act of
"Tristan." Perhaps you have received them by this time. The
Hartels treat me with much forbearance. At first when I thought
that the score would be finished this autumn, I prodded them on
terribly. Since then I have left them miserably in the lurch.
Before the end of December I cannot think of sending them the
second act. I cannot help this, because I must wait for the most
favourable mood to go on with the work. The "Nibelungen" question
has also been mooted again by us. I shall have these things
engraved now, and shall leave the discussion of the honorarium
till after the performance. In this matter a very droll
intermezzo has been played, or rather it has not been played out
yet, because its conclusion will probably take place in a few
days. I shall relate this adventure to you when it is finished.

My affairs are in a somewhat miserable condition. "Rienzi" is not
getting on in spite of the continued success of the Dresden
revival. The first disappointment came from Munich where I had
expected to get an honorarium of fifty louis d'or. They wrote to
me that the reading committee objected to the subject on
RELIGIOUS grounds. I pity that dear religion! It is partly your
fault that it is put to such uses now; why do you write beautiful
Masses for the parsons? From Hanover also I expected an immediate
remittance, and could not understand the delay, when I heard that
Niemann, after having heard Tichatschek in "Rienzi", did not feel
competent to sustain the part with equal voice-* power. Therefore
it was given up. Breslau alone is sufficiently bold, and will
venture upon it. I wish I could find some one who would do
justice to the real character of the part, in which case he need
not be afraid of singing it even before Tichatschek. I have
hinted so much to Niemann. I am thus, once more, reduced to my
old capital, "Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin", and they are no longer
sufficient for my present difficult position.

D. wrote to me five and a half lines, inquiring as to my terms.
You probably know my reply. I wish the inhuman creature had sent
me the money at once. Good Lord, what Jacks-in-office you all
are! None of you can put himself in the place of a poor devil
like me who looks upon every source of income as a lucky draw in
a lottery. Please, tread gently upon his toe.

K. R. left me today, probably for a few weeks, in order to
congratulate his mother on her birthday at Dresden. If he finds
it possible he will pay you a visit at Weimar.

W. remains with me in his place; he arrived from Vienna with a
Russian family a month ago, in order to spend the winter here.
Fortunately, he keeps quiet and does not molest me, for being by
myself is the boon which I enjoy, and watch over with painful
care. In the Square I am literally run after by foreign princes;
one of them, D., who boasts of knowing you personally, I was
unable to avoid. He lives where I have my dinner and,
occasionally, waylays me. He is an odd and apparently good-
natured person. Today he dropped down upon me with much
enthusiasm between the soup and the cutlets, in order to tell me
that he had heard one of your symphonic poems beautifully played
on the piano, and by whom? By a Venetian music-teacher, who has
been made an enthusiast for German music by you and me. This
amused me very much. D. also has been gained for your cause. What
more can you desire? And all this happened in the Square of St.
Mark at dinner, the weather being infamously cold.

Be of good cheer then, and may God bless you. Continue to love
me. Write to me soon, and greet Altenburg a thousand times for

Your

R. W.

276.

VENICE, November 26th, 1858.

I enclose you a beautiful autograph.

I cannot tell you how comic it appears to me that I have to
transact Weimar business with F. D. I have a good mind to tell
HIM that he had better leave my opera alone. Weimar has lost all
its charm for me since I have to meet so formal a person before I
can get at you and the Grand Duke. You are a very tedious set of
people.

You told me two years ago that you were in possession of a score
of "Rienzi" which I had left there on my flight. If that is so, I
should be glad if you would not attach much importance to its
possession. My original score is always at your disposal in case,
as I scarcely believe, you should care much about this opus. I
have only a very few copies left. At the time I had no more than
twenty-five copies made, more than half of which I have
squandered away. If it MUST be, get a copy from Fischer in
Dresden, and submit it reverentially in my name to the great
Dingelstedt. Have you had your score altered by Fischer? In the
third act there is a long cut and a change necessitated by it
which I made for Hamburg.

Good Lord! it is miserable that one has to take all this trouble
for a little money. I am once more confined to my room, and
cannot even get up from my chair; a neglected abscess in my leg
causes me terrible pain; sometimes in the middle of my music I
call out loudly, which has a very fine effect.

Have the Hartels sent you the first act of "Tristan?" You will
have copies of the poem before long.

Farewell for today. I have to indulge in a few shrieks, which in
a letter would not sound well.

A thousand greetings--oh!

From your

R. W. (oh!!)

Have I really to wait for the wretched twenty-five louis d'or--
oh!!--till after the PERFORMANCE? Lord only knows when that will
take place--oh!!

277.

VENICE, December 5th, 1858.

I made haste, dearest friend, to write to D. in accordance with
your summons sent to me through our Princess.

I wrote to him that doubts had arisen in me whether I still
desired the performance of "Rienzi" at Weimar, and I ask you to
agree with me and give up the plan. If anything could have
induced me to push my "Rienzi" at this time of day it would, as
you will understand, have been the desire of deriving a good
income from it, such as would have been welcome in my poor and
uncertain condition. In itself I look upon this revival as an
anachronism which, moreover, would be quite premature. After the
recent great success of the opera at Dresden I was in hopes that
the rapid sale of this opus would supply me with sufficient means
for my present wants. That hope, however, has been deceived in
the most important points, especially with regard to Munich and
Hanover, as I recently informed you. By offering this opera
broadcast I had to humiliate my pride very much, and I have now
become very sensitive as to this matter. At Weimar, too, the
opera is, properly considered, an intruder, and is evidently
being looked upon as such. You enlightened me upon this point
last winter, when you explained to me the reason for its delay.
But I do not desire that you should force this juvenile
production upon any one in Weimar. The reasons for keeping on
good terms on such an occasion with this person or that person do
not exist for me, and my sincere wish is, that they should not
exist for you either. In this matter we two should agree. Whether
or not I perform my "Nibelungen" at some future time is at bottom
a matter of indifference to me. I shall complete it in any case,
for my enthusiasm and strength for such works I do not derive
from any hopes, for the realisation of which I should require
certain people. All that the world and my "admirers" and
"worshippers" of whom I have to hear so much can do for me, is to
look upon my whole situation in a serious and sympathetic light,
and to do all in their power to ease my heavy cares and to
preserve to me the pleasure and leisure which I require for my
work. Beyond this I want nothing. But to attain it, very
different efforts are necessary from those which have hitherto
come to my knowledge.

Enough of this. I can do without the Weimar honorarium and
douceur for "Rienzi," which, in any case, would come too late to
be of service to me. By next Easter, till which time I should
have to wait, I shall be able to help myself in other ways; in
the meantime it will be a hard struggle, but I shall manage
somehow.

Even the Weimar receipts would, unfortunately, not have enabled
me to repay your 1,000 francs.

To sum up: you will, undoubtedly, save yourself much trouble and
unpleasantness by giving up "Rienzi." If you have Tichatschek in
the spring let him sing Lohengrin; that will give you much more
pleasure.

Imagine that for a week and a half I have not been able to move
from my chair. This illness was just what was required to finish
me up. I had just resumed my work a little, after a gastric and
nervous indisposition, when I was obliged to give in again.
However, I am getting better, and hope to be able to walk and
work again next week.

Farewell, and be pressed to my heart a thousand times.

Your

R. W.

278.

DEAREST RICHARD,

Hartel has sent me a divine Christmas present. All the children
in the world cannot be so delighted with their trees and the
golden apples and splendid gifts suspended thereon as I, in my
own person, am with your unique "Tristan." Away with all the
cares and tribulations of every-day existence! Here one can weep
and glow again. What blissful charm, what undivined wealth of
beauty in this fiery love-potion! What must you have felt while
you created and formed this wondrous work? What can I tell you
about it beyond saying that I feel with you in my heart of
hearts!

However, in my capacity of practical friend, I must speak to you
of commonplace things. Your negative answer to D., much as it
grieved me in many respects, came at the RIGHT MOMENT. I
proposed, as you know, "Rienzi" for performance eighteen months
ago, and your small opinion of my small influence on our affairs
is, unfortunately, too correct. Without troubling you with the
details of local matters, I only tell you that I quite approve of
your conduct, reserving to myself, however, the right of asking
for your "Rienzi" if a favourable moment for the performance of
this opera, long desired by me, should arrive. In the first
instance, the "Prophet" and Auber's "Bal Masque" are to be given,
and I, for my part, have declared that I shall not enter the
orchestra for some time to come. By next spring I hope your
personal affairs will have taken a more favourable turn, to which
I may, perhaps, be able to contribute something. When "Tristan"
is completed, and you have sent the dedication copy to the Grand
Duchess of Baden, you must write to me at length as to what
remains to be done.

With K. R., who delighted me with a visit of several days, I
discussed a good many things which he will shortly communicate to
you. I flatter myself that he has taken a good impression away
with him, and that some old friendly associations will be even
more firmly established in years to come. His musical gift
appears very considerable to me, and I have advised him to
concentrate himself on an operatic subject, which he had better
arrange for himself. You should encourage him in this; by your
advice and influence he will no doubt achieve something
excellent, and a musico-dramatic work will help him to proper
recognition in the quickest and best way.

I wanted to send you the "Dante" symphony for the new year, but
the corrections have taken me longer than I expected, and the
publication will not take place before January. I shall send you
a respectable parcel, for the Gran Mass will also be included in
it. I wish I could bring you these things personally, stay with
you, accompany you in "Tristan." Let us hope that the new year
will put an end to our separation, and chain us to each other in
the body, as we are already in spirit and heart.

Your

F. L.

December 26th, 1858.

You may expect a dedication from the composer of the opera D. v.
S.; accept it in a friendly spirit, although you will find
yourself in the strange company of Meyerbeer. The composer is
well inclined towards you, of which I recently had a very
convincing proof. Do not mention this until the dedication
actually reaches you. Later on you will probably have to write a
few lines in reply. 279.

Cordial thanks for your New Year's greeting, dearest Richard. I
expect to see the explanation of the last words of your telegram
in your next letter, for I have no knowledge of the event which
you describe as "wonderfully miserable." In certain quarters,
however, the MISERABLE appears no longer WONDERFUL to me. I hope
the new year will bring some things to a better issue, and have
many good things in store for you. Enclosed I send you this
week's repertoire of the Weymar theatre, in which you will see
the announcement of "Lohengrin" for next Sunday. For the first
time I shall not conduct this work to which I am attached with my
whole soul. "Tannhauser" also I have left to my colleague, and
when I come to explain to you the circumstances which determine
me to this negative attitude, I feel sure that you will see in it
no neglect of my artistic conviction, much less of my duty as a
friend to you.

If your operas have elsewhere been given for the purpose of
getting money, the responsibility lies with those concerned; but
here, where these works have been guarded and watched with so
much love, I cannot make myself an accomplice of the brutal
mercantile spirit in which they are now regarded, especially not
after we two have been treated with such total want of
consideration in this "Rienzi" affair, which has been allowed to
drag on for more than eighteen months.

As I said in my last letter, I fully approve of your resolution
not to sell "Rienzi" to the management here. If you should be
applied to by letter I ADVISE YOU TO MAKE NO CONCESSION. If the
time for relenting should come I shall send you word; you know
how deeply your interests concern me.

In the first instance, the "Prophet," "Bal Masque," "Don
Pasquale," and "Antigone", have to be studied and performed,
which will leave no time or goodwill for "Rienzi." As regards
goodwill, C. R. can relate to you the circumstances of the first
performance of Cornelius's opera, when my passive attitude during
this season will be explained to you. Really I often require the
patience beseeming a confrater of the Franciscan order to bear so
many intolerable things.

Your

F. L.

January 1st, 1859.

280.

VENICE, January 2nd, 1859.

MY DEAR FRANZ,

The time has come when I must once more speak with calmness and
in a decisive manner of the subject which has been so rich a
source of my life's troubles, and which last New Year's Eve
caused the storm I let loose upon you, no doubt to your sorrow.
Such storms must not occur again, that I feel deeply. Even this
last attack was caused only by a moment of the most violent
excitement. I must, in fact, undergo an absolute change in order
to gain a position more worthy of myself. It is for this reason
that I apply to you, for the last time, and perhaps it would be
better if I did not trouble you in the matter, even for this last
time. But if I omitted to do so at the moment when I am about to
take a decisive step, I might perhaps have to reproach myself
with having neglected my nearest, most helpful, and most
influential friend in an unaccountable manner.

Let me come to the point.

After living in exile for ten years, my amnesty has become of
less importance to me than the guarantee of an existence free
from care and secure from discomfort for the rest of my life. Do
not be surprised. The return to Germany is of relative value to
me. The only positive gain would be my seeing you often and
living together with you. The possible performances of my operas
under my direction, would certainly bring me less enjoyment than
exertion, care, trouble, and annoyance. I never had much pleasure
in the performance of one of my operas, and shall have much less
in future. My ideal demands have increased, compared with former
times, and my sensitiveness has become much more acute during the
last ten years while I lived in absolute separation from artistic
public life. I fear that even you do not quite understand me in
this respect, and you should believe my word all the more
implicitly. Your nature and position in life and in the world are
so entirely different from mine that you can scarcely realise my
sensitiveness in this respect from your own consciousness.

Believe me implicitly when I tell you that the only reason for my
continuing to live is the irresistible impulse of creating a
number of works of art which have their vital force in me. I
recognise beyond all doubt that this act of creating and
completing alone satisfies me and fills me with a desire of life,
which otherwise I should not understand. I can, on the other
hand, do quite well without any chance of a performance. I see
clearly that before the completion of "Tristan" my amnesty would
absolutely place me in an awkward position; no expectation, not
even that of producing "Lohengrin", could induce me to leave my
present place of abode before I had finished my work. From this
you may guess at other things. Any offer of a secured and
comfortable existence would be of no value to me if it were
coupled with the condition of my accepting the amnesty, and of
doing certain services made possible thereby. I cannot and shall
not accept an appointment or anything resembling it. What I
demand, on the other hand, is the settlement upon me of an
honourable and large pension, solely for the purpose of creating
my works of art undisturbed and without regard for external
success.

Being without property or subvention of any kind, I have to rely
for my income upon my operas. He who has real knowledge of the
nature of my works, and who feels and esteems their peculiar and
differentiating qualities, must see that I, in my position
towards such an institution as our theatre, ought to be entirely
relieved from the necessity of making commercial articles of my
works. Any just-minded man must perceive that it would be quite
unworthy of me to relinquish my freedom by giving my operas to
managers without stipulating for their artistic interest, without
choice, without preference for any particular theatre, or even by
being compelled to offer them to such managers. This necessity
has already filled me with much painful bitterness, and the worst
of it is that even if I suppress my sense of honour to that
extent, the receipts accruing to me are of such a nature that
they place me, pecuniarily speaking, in a painful and alarming
position. At times those receipts come in plentifully and
unexpectedly, and in consequence bring with them all of a sudden
perfect security and a certain tempting plenty. At other times
they fall off for a long period and again quite unexpectedly; and
this falling off, just because it could not be foreseen, is
followed by want, care, and tribulation. If this is to be mended
I must be relieved from the necessity of counting upon these
receipts, and be placed in a position which will enable me to
look upon them as an accidental increase of resources, which I
can employ in adding certain comforts to my existence, and which
I am able to dispense with without interfering with my sufficient
and settled income, as soon as I find it desirable to withhold my
operas from those theatres, the strength or the direction of
which does not enable me to credit them with honest zeal for my
work. In this manner, and by the position towards our abominable
theatrical institutions thus attained, I should be protected by
my contemporaries, and enabled to continue my creations in
accordance with my earnest desire and with the peculiarity of my
artistic nature. An ample and fully secured pension can alone do
this for me, and only a combination of several German princes
whom I have inspired with sympathy can accomplish the desired
object.

On such a combination I should have to insist, for the reason,
more especially, that this pension, if it is to fulfil its object
and to satisfy my somewhat refined and not altogether ordinary
wants, must amount to at least 2,000 or 3,000 thalers. I do not
blush in naming such a sum. My experience of what I want in
accordance with my nature, and, perhaps I should add, the nature
of my works, teaches me that I cannot well do with less; and on
the other hand, it is well known that artists like Mendelssohn
(although he was rich), have received equally large honorary
salaries from one single quarter.

I ask you therefore, definitely and finally, whether you will
take the initiative in this matter? At the same time I would draw
your attention to the fact that, after mature consideration, I
must abide by the character of my demand. An appointment at
Weimar, although it might leave me at perfect liberty and even be
equal to yours, I could not accept, because the salary would not
be sufficient for my purpose. It would not help me radically, and
would therefore imply all the dangers of a palliative measure.
Once more, I require an absolute settlement of my external
circumstances, which will provide for and exercise a decided
influence on my future artistic creativeness. I shall be forty-
six next birthday, and therefore speak of about ten years at the
utmost.

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