virtuoso spirit of the other great geniuses mentioned in a later
chapter--all of whom wrote for the sake of an effect to be arrived at,
rather than from any inner necessity of carrying out their tone-poems
in such and such a way. Meyerbeer's influence, about 1830 to 1840, was
supreme upon the stage. It was to consult him that young Wagner
undertook his journey to Paris, bringing with him his splendid
spectacular opera "Rienzi," quite in the Meyerbeer vein. This feature
in the work, most likely, was the one chiefly concerned in preventing
its acceptance at Paris under Meyerbeer's direction. Wagner was very
much influenced by Meyerbeer in all his earlier works, particularly in
the matter of splendid appointments for the stage. With all the
splendid brilliancy of Meyerbeer's music, there is something insincere
about it. It rarely touches the deeper springs of feeling. This is
true of the greatest of his pieces, no less than of the smaller
numbers.

IV.

The most interesting story in the history of opera, and one so
resplendent that it is impossible not to regard the others as merely
in some degree preparatory to it, is that of Richard Wagner
(1813-1883). This remarkable man was born in Leipsic in 1813, the son
of a superintendent of police. His mother was a woman of refined and
spiritual nature. After the death of his father, his mother married
again--an actor named Geyer--a circumstance having an important
bearing on the future of the composer. His brother Albert and his
sister Rosalie became actors, and Wagner himself was familiar with the
stage from earliest childhood. He studied music while a boy, but his
ambition was to become a poet. He translated the twelve books of the
Odyssey. He made the acquaintance of Shakespeare's plays, first in
German, afterward in English. He made a translation of Romeo's
soliloquy, and began to compose music for it. At the age of eighteen
he copied Beethoven's ninth symphony in score, for the purpose of
knowing it more thoroughly. His musical progress was such that at the
age of twenty-one he was able to accept a position as the conductor of
the opera at Magdeburg. In 1836 this failed, and he accepted a place
at Koenigsberg. He had then written one opera, called "The Love Veto."
In 1837 he was much interested in Bulwer's "Rienzi," and immediately
made a libretto from it. He was now musical director at Riga, and his
wife had leading feminine roles in opera. His favorite composer in
o