ABSTRACT
Respecting the Berlin Tannhauser negotiations much new material has quite recently come to light, and the author must say at once that it gives a somewhat different complexion to the affair from that to be deduced from the Richard Wagner-Franz Liszt Correspondence alone. In the same breath Liszt reports that another company proposes to take Tannhauser to Berlin that summer, and he presumes that Richard Wagner will not consent to such a thing. Liszt makes the initial mistake of answering it at needless length, presumably under the dictation of many-worded Carolyne, and of turning Botho von HUlsen's inquiry about Tannhauser into one concerning Wagner's operas in the plural. Even where Albert Wagner has reason on his side, he overrates his own sagacity in making what he deems a brilliantly novel suggestion : Hulsen's letter of May 29 1854 had offered Liszt that golden bridge before the latter launched his ultimatum of June 3.
