I consider Hanover a well-chosen ground for the first performance of “Tristan.”  The King works magnificently for his theatre, and if the matter is placed before him in the proper way, it may be expected that he will carry out your wishes and intentions.  Unfortunately I cannot be of service to you, for to the particular influence of some of my “Friends” I owe a distinctly pronounced dislike on the part of His Majesty.  All I can do in the face of this is to wait quietly and resignedly, until the King condescends to adopt a more correct view.  Fortunately Niemann is devoted to you, body and soul, chest-voice and head-voice.  He will, no doubt, do all in his power to bring about the scenic embodiment.

Berlin and Vienna will probably hold back a little in existing circumstances, and the rest of Germany, which is united at least in the spirit of negation, will probably wait prudently until the camel comes walking along, after which it will consult no end of folios in order to describe and appreciate it properly.  Oh! lazy abomination, your name is—­artistic conditions.

At Wiesbaden, Frankfort, and I know not where else, they were waiting for Wagner, and wanted to see him conduct, or at least listen to, “Tannhauser”, “Lohengrin”, etc., and there would certainly have been no lack of enthusiastic demonstrations; but from a work like “Tristan”, at the very first sight of the score of which every one must exclaim:  “This is something unheard of, marvellous, sublime,” they run away, and hide themselves like fools.

I have taken the liberty of making use of the passage of your letter referring to the ready assistance you receive from the artists, and the management of the Grand Opera in Paris by Imperial command; and in the next number of Brendel’s paper you will read something corresponding to your letter in the form of an original correspondence.  We had, of course, to adapt some things too true in themselves to our laudable habits here.  As I have named Brendel I should like to mention a request, viz., that you should publish the preface to the French translation of your dramas in Germany, simultaneously with the Paris edition, and that you should for that purpose send the original, probably written in German, either to Brendel or some publisher.  A translation of that preface will, no doubt, appear, unless you forestall it by the original itself, and thus prevent the travesty of your ideas, or at least of your style.  If no German sketch should be in existence, my request of course falls to the ground, for it would be asking you too much to do the work twice over.

Then you are satisfied with the translation of “Tannhauser?” I am extremely pleased, for I confess that I think it no easy task to Frenchify your works in your sense.  I am very curious to see the new version of the Venus scene and the ballet.  When you have finished it quite, and a copy has been made, you might perhaps lend me the sketch of the new version for a few days, but I hope that this will be made unnecessary by my visit to you.