I, For My Part, Am In The Midst Of Finishing The 13th Psalm (For
Tenor Solo, Chorus, And Orchestra), "How
Long wilt Thou forget
me, O Lord?" which you will hear this winter; and I shall not
leave Weymar till
November to go and pay a few days' visit to
Wagner at Zurich. Don't altogether forget me, my dear Cossmann,
in the midst of your solemnities - - [The end of the letter was
lost.]
143. To August Kiel, Court Conductor in Detmold
[Autograph (without address) in the possession of M. Alfred
Bovet, of Valentigney. The contents lead to the conclusion that
the above was the addressee (1813-71).]
I have been prevented until now, by a mass of work and little
outings, from sending you my warmest thanks for your kind
forwarding of the opera text of "Sappho," and I beg that you will
kindly excuse this delay. The manner in which Rietz's composition
to the Schiller dithyramb is to be interwoven with the poem I
cannot venture fully to explain. I confess also that the
dramatico-musical vivifying of the antique is for me a sublime,
attractive problem, as yet undecided, in the solution of which
even Mendelssohn himself has not succeeded in such a degree as to
leave nothing further to be sought for. Some years ago "Sappho"
(in three acts - text by Augier, music by Gounod) was given at the
Paris Opera. This work contains much that is beautiful, and
Berlioz has spoken of it very favorably in the Journal des
Debats.
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