Your
RICHARD W.
It would be a good omen if this letter were to reach you on your birthday.
272.
VENICE, October 23rd, 1858.
After I had settled with R. on the 21st that we were to congratulate you jointly on your birthday, he came to me on the 22nd and told me that he had just sent you a telegram. By way of revenge I ordered a dinner with oysters and champagne in the Square of St. Mark, to which a military band played the overture of "Rienzi" most excellently. We drank your health and clinked our gla.s.ses, and had a most pleasant evening.
Of this I send you doc.u.mentary evidence by this letter.
Your
R. W.
273.
VENICE, October 26th, 1858.
DEAREST FRANZ,
I have just had a letter from Munich telling me that they have given up "Rienzi" owing to religious scruples. I want money, much money, in order to get honestly through my difficult position, and am looking out everywhere for a little business. I have just offered my "Lohengrin" to the Ca.s.sel management. If you can help me there, do so.
I should not like myself to write to Coburg, where I have been neglected in a surprising manner. Do you know of a channel through means of which you could bring it about that they should buy "Lohengrin" and the "Dutchman" as well? Think of this and help me in the old way.
A thousand greetings from your
R. W.
274.
DEAREST RICHARD,
R."s telegram of October 21st was received with joyful acclamation, and your letter, which arrived on the same evening, was the most welcome birthday present on account of the calm, conciliatory mood which I felt in it. May you soon resume your work joyfully! I hope you are getting on with "Tristan", of which as yet I do not know a single note. In accordance with your last letter, I have asked the Hartels to lend me the score for a few days when the engraver does not want it any longer.
Your hints as to the performances of "Lohengrin", "The Flying Dutchman", and "Rienzi" in Ca.s.sel, Gotha, and other cities will not be neglected, and I need not a.s.sure 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 Ma.s.s 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 Ma.s.s 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 Ma.s.ses 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 G.o.d 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.