Ferdinand Ries, Brief an Franz Gerhard Wegeler in Koblenz, Frankfurt am Main, 19. November 1828, Autograph

"The robber's bride" continues to be a successful opera. The second and third finale is shortened to enhance the effect. The opera will be performed in Vienna and Berlin. Ries is struggling to establish "The robber's bride" as a counterweight to Gaspare Spontini's Italian opera. Grateful, Ries remembers the original source of his opera, Mrs. General von Borstel (Albertine Wilhelmine Luise von Voß (1777-1842), spouse of the Prussian General Karl Leopold Heinrich Ludwig von Borstel (1773-1844), who served in the VIII Army Corps in Koblenz from 1825 until 1840), from whom he expects protection and encouragement. None of the eleven librettos and subjects presented to Ries finds his approval. There is an offer from the city of Aachen to compose an oratorio based on the text of an Aachen poet and to perform the opera at the Lower Rhine Music Festival. Ries imagines a short oratorio consisting of one act such as Beethoven's "Christ on the mount of olives". The preparations for a Beethoven biography have now started. Ries has given Wegeler material for Schindler, asking if he has translated Beethoven's letters and whether he should sort out other letters and make a clean copy: "Haben Sie Beethoven's Briefe übersetzt? - soll ich noch mehrere heraus suchen und in's reine schreiben? - wird Sie Schindler brauchen können?" (FG)