This time I was not able to have a thorough rest in Vienna. Such an extra [luxury] is hardly my lot anywhere. My life is one continued fatigue. Some one once asked the celebrated Catholic champion Arnauld (the Jansenist) why he did not allow himself some rest. "We have eternity for that," answered he.
I hear for the first time through you of a cousin or niece, Mary Liszt, a concert giver. Concert givers have frequently misused our name by playing under it in provincial towns. A pianist in Constantinople, Herr Listmann, apologised to me for having knocked off the second syllable of his name. On this account he received a valuable present from the then Sultan Abdul Medgid. .- -.
Farewell till our next meeting in Easter week, dear cousin, from yours ever affectionately,
F. Liszt
Budapest, February 8th, 1884
One, and even two, letters from the Princess in the month of
January have been lost.
337. To Camille Saint-Saens.
Very Dear and Most Excellent Friend,
Before I received your kind letter I had intimated to Baron Podmaniczki, the Intendant of the theater of Budapest, that he ought to esteem it an honor to give your Henry VIII.—a frightful personage in history, but brilliantly illustrated by your beautiful music [an Opera by Saint-Satins]. The inauguration of the new theater will take place at the end of September with the St. Etienne, a new Opera by Erkel, the popular dramatic composer par excellence in Hungary. His Huvtyadi Laszlo was performed 250 times, and his "Bankban" more than 100, without ever over- reaching the mark. Two other works are promised after the St. Etienne, so that your Henry VIII. cannot appear till '85, for it still has to be translated into Hungarian.
I spoke about it in Vienna to his Excellency Baron Hoffmann, the Intendant of the Imperial Theaters. He told me that your work is going to be given shortly at Prague, and that he will send his own conductor, M. Jahn, there, in order that it may be better looked after. I beg that you will send the piano score of Henry VIII. at once to M. le directeur Jahn (very influential), with a few polite lines; also to do the same to M. Erkel Sandor (son of the composer), conductor of the National Opera of Budapest. Address to him "Theater National," Budapest.