destination towards the end of the month.

III

Wagner had scarcely time to look around him before his brother Albert
offered him the post of chorus-master. The salary was magnificent--L1
(of our money) per month for about six months in the year; the work
was hard. We need only note with regard to it that he here heard, and
in the process of drilling his choristers undoubtedly got to know very
well, all the popular successes of the day. His own account is that he
liked them; and it is significant that during this period he heard
Meyerbeer's _Robert the Devil_. At the moment it does not seem to have
affected his compositions; but in a very few years Meyerbeer's
example, if not his music, had a most marked influence in shaping his
career. For the present he worked at _Die Feen_, and as soon as the
theatre closed and Albert and his wife went elsewhere to perform in
the off-season--just as German, French, Italian and American singers
come to Covent Garden now during the summer--he had plenty of time. By
New Year's day of '34 the work was complete. Parts of it were rendered
by some Music Union; but soon Richard left Wuerzburg, having gained
much experience if not any money. He was offered a post at Zurich;
but though that town was destined to be his home for years long
afterwards, it evidently did not tempt him then, for he returned to
Leipzig.

Here at once began one of those squalid intrigues which drive serious
opera-composers crazy. Several of Richard's pieces had been played; he
had occupied one responsible position and been asked to take another;
he had the finished score of his opera; and he was young and by nature
sanguine to the verge of lunacy. He thought he had only to call on the
Intendant of the opera with his masterpiece and its production would
be assured. He did call, and soon he received a promise that his work
would be done. But Leipzig was now Mendelssohn's stronghold and no
rival could be tolerated. One of the great man's friends and admirers,
Hauser, determined that the work should not be done. He opined that
Wagner did not know how to compose nor how to orchestrate; he found
the music lacking in warmth. This from a worshipper of Mendelssohn
seems a little amusing to-day; but it had a result bad for Wagner in
1834. Underground work went on; and while Wagner waited with what
patience he could muster--and I expect that was not much--hoping every
day to hear that rehearsals had commenced, his score w