Volume II Part 41 (1/2)

A thousand greetings from

Your

R W

309

WEYMAR, Septelorious letter, dearest Richard, h mountains once more You knohat I require, and offer it to ht have misunderstood hted at being set right by you as to this As I wrote to you before, it was IMPOSSIBLE for ust 16th Well, all is over now, and you have pardonedelse How proud I should be of your visit here, and how beneficial and strengthening prolonged intercourse with you would be to me, I need not tell you I think it more probable, however, that I shall pay you a visit in Paris first The exact date I shall not be able to deter of all my circuards your visit here, I repeat what I have said to you and others Weymar owes you a special distinction, and it is necessary that an appropriate and adequate opportunity of presenting yourself here should be offered to you It is extremely amiable of you to mean principally me when you pronounce the name of Weymar I wish that this SYNONYM (in an artistic sense) were a little more pronounced; that my advice were followed, and my reasonable wishes complied with a little more readily But this can scarcely be expected, and I ned, deterree hat you say of the ”INSUFFICIENT artistic doings” here; however, s COULD and SHOULD be done, especially for you and your works You will understand that I cannot abandon this view, and that I shall do all inperfor towards it

I consider Hanover a well-chosen ground for the first perfornificently 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 ca, 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 aiting for Wagner, and wanted to see hirin”, etc, and there would certainly have been no lack of enthusiastic demonstrations; but froht of the score of which every oneunheard of, marvellous, sublime,” they run away, and hide the use of the passage of your letter referring to the ready assistance you receive froement of the Grand Opera in Paris by Imperial command; and in the next nu to your letter in the forinal correspondence We had, of course, to adapt sos 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, round, 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 ht perhaps lend me the sketch of the new version for a few days, but I hope that this will be made unnecessary by ether and ether at last Cordial thanks for your kind letter, which in these dreary days has been a great and noble joy to ly correct view of the totally passive attitude with regard to the reception and proation of my works which I shall observe for the future Other people have so it is to be able to dispense with the explanation and discussion of certain things!

God bless you, dearest Richard; keep fresh and brave and upright

Your

F LISZT

I shall write to X today, and give him news of you 310

PARIS, November 24th, 1860,

3, RUE D'AUMALE

DEAREST FRANZ,

Forgivebut a few lines I have been severely ill these four weeks, and my recovery is scarcely noticeable I aent request to make Fancy! I do not possess a SINGLE copy of ” I want to publish it, and do not knohere to get a copy for the printer

I rereat number of copies to Weimar, and there was such abundance there that (as I think Draseke told et ent need, and send it le possessor who could make up his reat difficulty, I promise to restore to him the identical copy after the completion of the reprint I may therefore fairly ask even the most ardent admirer of in to perspire, and can write no more

Come to Paris as you promised, and make me happy!

Your

RW