ritten to Herr von
Luettichau, and herewith turn to Reissiger. If Devrient cannot
give up her Armida, if she cannot afford me the sacrifice of a
whim, then all my welfare rests only on the promptness with
which this opera is brought out, and my own is taken up. I
therefore fervently pray Reissiger to hurry: and you--I beseech
you--do the same with Devrient. By punctuality and diligence
everything can still be set right for me; for the chief thing
is--only that my opera should come out before Easter (that is to
say, in the first half of March). I am truly quite exhausted!
Alas! I meet with so little that is encouraging, that it would
really be of untold import to me if, at least in Dresden, things
should go according to my wish!"

These excerpts afford some notion of the struggles and disappointments
of this time--struggles that were to be repeated when, more than
twenty years later, _Tristan_ and the _Mastersingers_ were produced in
Munich. More need not be quoted, for the story is always the
same--delays caused by intrigues and the whims and caprice of singers,
and the indifference of inartistic directors.

It should be said that Meyerbeer seems, for the only time, really to
have helped Wagner in getting _Rienzi_ accepted, for a letter of his
to von Luettichau recommending the opera, has been preserved; wherefore
let us gladly acknowledge this deed, which was a good, if a very
small, one. He again paid a visit to Paris, and this time gave Wagner
a word of introduction to Pillet, who had assumed the post of director
of the Opera. Owing to this introduction the _Flying Dutchman_ was
written. Wagner sketched a scenario and let Pillet have it. The
customary procrastination set in, and at last Pillet flatly told
Wagner he could not produce an opera by him: he was young, a German,
and so on and so on; and in a word he liked the scenario and had
determined to have it set by one Dietsch--which is not a very
French-sounding name. He offered Wagner twenty pounds for it, and if
the offer was not accepted--well, Wagner might do what he chose.
Wagner took it.

He completed his libretto, took lodgings at Meudon, then a lovely
suburb of Paris, hired a piano and sat down to compose his _Dutchman_.
He gives a graphic account of his tremors whilst awaiting the piano:
he feared that during the degrading struggle for bread the power of
composing might have deserted him. The instrument ar