Wagner, Richard

ABOUT WAGNER'S FUTURE IN GERMANY AND THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS WORKS, stating that he knows nothing about the former, observing that what he is offered in Germany never matches what he is offered here by command of the emperor, commenting on the wretchedness of German court culture, commenting ironically on the fact that in order for a German to see his opera Tannhäuser he must go to Paris to hear it performed in French, expressing his amazement that in Germany his music is disfigured, even in the supposedly best productions, to such an extent that he can say that in Germany no one really knows his work, asking that God might preserve him from the joy of ever attending a German production of his works, noting that it is not financial considerations that have determined the Paris production [of Tannhäuser], but that it is a matter of the heart, since, for the first time all that he needs has been placed at his disposal, mentioning Liszt, and stating that Queen Victoria has requested his Lohengrin in English; in the letter Wagner also discusses his famous "Open Letter to a French Friend (Frédéric Villot)" [published later in Leipzig under the title "Zukunftsmusik"], noting that he given his manuscript to J. J. Weber, observing that it would be too long for a journal, but asking him to make use of any parts of it, explaining that the publisher will no doubt be happy to send him the returned corrected proofs, admitting that much of it is not really new, with the exception perhaps of his treatment of melody  

"...Ueber meine Zukunft in Deutschland weiss ich noch gar nichts. Es wird mir dort jedenfalls nie das zu Gebote gestellt werden, was durch den Befehl des Kaisers mir hier zu Gebot gestellt ist. Es thut mir leid, dass der hierauf bezügliche Passus meines Briefes an Liszt in Ihrer Mittheilung ausgelassen worden ist; wozu diese gänzlich unfruchtbare Rücksicht auf die Miserabilität der deutschen Hofkunstzustände dienen soll, kann ich nicht begreifen. Lassen Sie sich mit aller Bestimmtheit sagen, dass derjenige Deutsche, der meinen Tannhäuser vollständig kennen lernen will, nach Paris kommen möge, um ihn hier französisch zu hören..."



3 pages, 8vo (20.5 x 13.5cm), a few later pencil strokes in margins, Paris, 2 October 1860, horizontal folds, repair to hinge, light discolouration along central horizontal fold, light browning, ink somewhat faded

Richard Wagner. Sämtliche Briefe, xii (2001) 218

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
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An important letter in which Wagner discusses his motivation for staging Tannhäuser in Paris. Wagner's correspondent was the German music critic Franz Brendel (1811-1868), from 1845-1868 the editor of the prestigious Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. A great supporter of all things Wagnerian, he coined the phrase Neudeutsche Schule (New German School) to described the forward-looking German musical movement led by Liszt and Wagner in the middle of the nineteenth century.

The text of this letter in Sämtliche Briefe is based on a copy, from whose text the autograph diverges in some major and minor points.