Werner Breig, Notes on Richard Wagner’s Correspondence from the Zurich Period

On 30 March 1853 Wagner wrote to Franz Liszt from Zurich: ‘The only thing I live for now is the post – I am compelled to await the arrival of the postman each morning at 11 with the liveliest impatience; should he bring nothing – or nothing worthwhile – then my whole day is a desolate saga of renunciation. This is my life!’ The outburst sums up the situation of the political refugee in which Wagner had found himself since the end of May 1849.