You have again taken up “Melusine?” I have already appealed to the management twice but have had no answer.--I have already said that I was compelled to ask 100 ducats for it.--Because as a matter of fact, all the profits of an opera-book remain with the theatre in which it is performed for the first time.--I could have made a spoken drama out of the same material which would have brought me three times as much--I _must_ ask so much in order to meet my obligations to Wallishauser. For ordinary opera-books they pay up to 300 florins C. M. Have you already begun to compose?--Will you please write down for me where you want the changes made?--Because then, nevertheless, the piece will _have_ to begin with a hunt.--Perhaps the last tones of a vanishing hunters’ chorus might blend with the introduction without having the hunters enter.--To begin with a chorus of nymphs might weaken the effect of the chorus at the close of the first act.--I am not quite versed in opera texts.--You want to deliver it to the theatre by September.--The direction wants to make a creditable showing in the eyes of the public.--Doesn’t the text of the opera also seem too _long_ to you?--To whom are you thinking of giving the rôle of _Raimund_?--They are talking of a young tenor who may have made his début by that time. I believe his name is Cramolini; besides a handsome figure he is said to have a beautiful voice.--It is said that the direction is having him educated.--Forti is a little too gross.--Then I am to expect your written suggestion as to alterations, soon?--I am not busy at present.--I am ready for anything. For a space there is talk about oratorio texts (“Judith”) and the possibility of musical expression in the case of Christ. Then the text of “Dragomira” is referred to, concerning which Beethoven seems to have asked. Grillparzer says: Dragomira. Great variety--great characters, effects.--The mother of St. Wenzelaus, the Duke of Bohemia.--One of her sons kills the other. She herself is a pagan, the better son is a Christian. They still show the spot in Prague where she was swallowed up by the earth with horses and equipage.--After I have lost all hope _here_ I shall send it to Berlin. There is much more talk in the Conversation Book about the opera, but neither sequence nor date can always be determined. Lichnowsky tells him that the management of the theatre is willing to do anything asked of it and is negotiating with Grillparzer. Brother Johann says: “Grillparzer is coming to-morrow--that is no affair of yours.--You wrote to the management to make arrangements with the poet, and to this it was agreed; hence Grillparzer must make terms.” In the same book Schikh, the editor, writes: “Why don’t you compose Grillparzer’s opera? Write the opera first and then we shall be in a position to wish you also to write a Requiem.”