Leave this matter alone; if the return to Germany were open to me, I should certainly use it only to make perhaps an incognito visit to you at Weimar.
Apropos! Ernst was here, and gave concerts, and he told me that the hope of seeing the "Flying Dutchman" had induced him to remain in Switzerland till the end of this month. You would therefore see him too.
Bring the Hereditary Grand Duchess along with you. As you are going to give the "Flying Dutchman" at Weimar, you would be interested to see the scenic arrangements which I have made for a small stage.
What is this you have heard about me in connection with your performance of "Cellini"? You seem to suppose that I am hostile to it. Of this error I want you to get rid. I look upon your undertaking as a purely personal matter, inspired by your liking for Berlioz; what a beast I should be if I were to criticize that liking and that undertaking! If every one would follow the inner voice of his heart as you do, or, better still, if every one had a heart for such a voice as you have, things would soon be changed. Here again I must rejoice in you. But where a pure matter of the heart is submitted to speculative reason, I must find that mistakes creep in which a third person can perceive. In the consequences which, as I am told, you expect from the performance of "Cellini", I cannot believe; that is all. But can this my unbelief in any way modify my judgment of your action? Not in the least. With my whole heart I say, you have acted rightly, and I wish that I could say as much to many people.
I am sorry that you have not produced "Lohengrin" again; you were in the right swing with it this season. What a pity that only a single performance should have been possible! This shows of what use half a year may be.
That Madame D. and her husband were unable to understand the passage in my preface proves their exceedingly fine tact. This was, no doubt, the best way for them of saving themselves a painful impression, and I am glad that they were able to do this, for it was really and truly far from my mind to annoy them. Ah, I wish I could this summer make at last a beautiful journey, and that I knew how to set about it! To this sigh only my own voice replies as echo from the wall of leather which surrounds me. This longing for a journey is so great in me that it has already inspired me with thoughts of robbery and murder against Rothschild and Co. We sedentary animals scarcely deserve to be called men. How many things we might enjoy if we did not always sacrifice them to that damnable "organ of sitting still."
Alas! this "organ of sitting still" is the real lawgiver of all civilized humanity. We are to sit or at best to stand, never to walk, much less to run for once in a while. My hero is the "bold runner Achilles." I would rather run to death than sit still and get sick. That is your opinion also, is it not? and therefore I may expect you for the Flying, not the lying-down, Dutchman.
We shall see. Live gloriously and well! Wholly thine,
RICHARD WAGNER.
ZURICH, April 13th, 1852.