Dear and Beloved Friend!
All would be well if the curtain were there, but without it the aria will be a failure. Only at noon today did I hear this from S[chuppanzigh] and I am much distressed – There must be some curtain, even though it be a bed-curtain or merely some kind of screen, which can be removed in a trice, a veil or something of that sort. There must be something. As it is, the aria is more or less dramatic, for it was composed for the theatre and thus cannot be effective in a concert hall; and without a curtain or something of the kind its whole significance will be lost! -- lost! – lost! – The devil take the whole business! The Court will probably be present. Baron Schweiger has begged me insistently to go to the Hofburg; the Archduke Karl has received me in person and promised to come – The Empress has not said yes, but neither has she said no –
Curtain! ! ! ! Or the aria and I will be hanged tomorrow.
All good wishes. All the New Year I press you to my heart as warmly as I did during the Old Year – With or without a curtain?
Your
Bethvn