WAGNER (Richard). Born in Leipzig. 1813-1883. German composer. L.A.S. "Richard Wagner" to "Dear Sir and Friend". Lucerne, 16 March 1870. 1 page in-8. In French. Recommendation in favour of the French musicologist Edouard Schuré, a passionate Wagnerian who contributed to the discovery of the great German composer in France. ...Allow me to remind you of you through the intermediary of a young man whom I hold in great esteem and friendship. Please accept Monsieur E. Schuré as one of my good friends, with whom I am sure you will find it interesting to talk, and to whom I would like to give the advantage of your acquaintance... Schuré fell in love with Wagner after a performance of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg in Munich in 1868. After writing several enthusiastic letters to the Master (who at the time was the target of much criticism), Schuré invited him to visit him in Tribschen. They continued their budding friendship through correspondence. In 1869, Schuré published his first study on Wagner in La Revue des deux mondes, which is regarded as the founding event of Wagnerism in France. In gratitude, the young intellectual received an invitation from the Master to the premiere of L'Or du Rhin. Schuré published several important texts on the great composer. Despite Wagner's virulent anti-French stance during the Franco-Prussian War, their relationship endured. In 1875, Edouard Schuré published a Histoire du Drame musical in which he analysed each of Wagner's dramas and for which he received Wagner's warm approval. Their last meeting was at the Bayreuth Festival in 1876. Letter written in the Villa of Tribschen where Wagner lived from 1866 to 1872 and where he wrote The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, composed Siegfried Idyll, and resumed the composition of his Ring tetralogy.