reserve there the most
stubborn silence. Whether I should give _Siegfried_ to Weimar,
intending it to be produced there, is after all a question
which, as matters now stand, I would probably only answer with
an unqualified No! I need not begin to assure you that I really
abandoned _Lohengrin_ when I permitted its production at
Weimar. I certainly received a letter yesterday from Zigesar,
which informed me that the second performance--given, through
somewhat energetic remonstrance on my part, only after most
careful rehearsals, and without cuts--was a wonder of success
and of effect on the public, and that it was perfectly clear
that it was and would remain a "draw". Yet I need not give you
my further reasons when I declare that I should wish to send
_Siegfried_ into the world in different fashion from that which
would be possible to the good people there. With regard to this,
I am busy with wishes and plans which, at first look, seem
chimerical, yet these alone give me the heart to finish
_Siegfried_. To realize the best, the most decisive, the most
important work which, under the present circumstances, I can
produce--in short, the accomplishment of the conscious mission
of my life--needs a matter of perhaps 10,000 thalers. If I could
ever command such a sum I would arrange thus:--here, where I
happen to be, and where many a thing is far from bad--I would
erect, after my own plans, in a beautiful field, near the town,
a rough theatre of planks and beams, and merely furnish it with
the decorations and machinery necessary for the production of
_Siegfried_. Then I would select the best singers to be found
anywhere, and invite them for six weeks to Zurich. I would try
to form a chorus here, consisting, for the most part, of
amateurs; there are splendid voices here, and strong, healthy
people. I should invite in the same way my orchestra. At the new
year announcements and invitations to all the friends of the
musical drama would appear in all the German newspapers, with a
call to visit the proposed dramatic musical festival. Any one
giving notice, and travelling for this purpose to Zurich, would
receive a certain entree--naturally, like all the entrees,
gratis. Besides, I should invite to a performance the young
people here, the university, the choral unions. When everything