"Get the letter to the King immediately"
Autograph letter signed ("R. Wagner").
8vo (225 x 141 mm). 1 p. on bifolium. In German.
€ 5,500.00
An affectionate letter to his servant Franz Mrazek, asking him to take a letter to King Ludwig and prepare for his arrival in Munich: "Get the letter to the King immediately. Then go to Mr Schnauffer and ask him to have good and pleasant accommodation ready for me next Saturday [...] at the Bayerischer Hof, where I want to stay for a few days, a drawing room and bedroom, 1st floor. Then be ready to receive me at the station on Saturday evening with a good carriage - closed [...]" (transl.).
Wagner's extravagant and scandalous lifestyle had compelled Ludwig II to ask him to leave Munich in December 1865: he retreated (at the King's expense) to Lucerne, where he completed work on "Die Meistersinger". His return to Munich announced in the present letter was for a meeting with the King on 10 March, at which they discussed the opera's premiere.
Sotheby's, 22 November 1989, lot 262.
Traces of handling and staining; slight edge flaws; tiny paper damage to fol. 1.
Margret Jestremski (ed.), Richard Wagner. Sämtliche Briefe. Band 19: Briefe des Jahres 1867 (Wiesbaden, Breitkopf & Härtel, 2011), pp. 96f., no. 49.
