There were six festivals at Bayreuth during the 1890s and Richter conducted at four of them, Die Meistersinger in 1892 and 1899 and the Ring in 1896 and 1897. Four performances of Die Meistersinger were scheduled for 1892 but he was barely able to rehearse, as he could not free himself of his London commitments, which lasted until 4 July, nor from his operatic duties in Vienna which took him back to the capital for the first eight days of August. There were also other complications. Over the winter 1891–92 Marie fell seriously ill. She made a very slow recovery and remained unwell for most of the first half of 1892. Richter wrote from London to Cosima in June 1892 asking for understanding:

Cosima was very sympathetic, though she was also having to cope with Richard Strauss’ illness (a recurrence of pleurisy and bronchitis), which forced him to withdraw his services as a conductor. Instead she called upon Karl Muck to prepare Meistersinger for Richter, with a promise of two performances. After hearing him rehearse the orchestra she changed her mind but implied to Muck that it was Richter who had raised objections to his engagement as a conductor.