hat Wagner, like that other great reformer, Gluck, began his
career by writing fashionable operas in the Italian style. A still
earlier opera of his, "The Fairies,"--the first one he completed,--was
not produced till 1888, fifty-five years after it had been written, and
five years after Wagner's death. This has been performed a number of
times in Munich, but it is so weak and uninteresting in itself that it
required a splendid stage setting, and the "historic" curiosity of
Wagner's admirers to make it palatable. It is significant that already
in these early works, Wagner wrote his own librettos,--a policy which he
pursued to the end.

Koenigsberg was the next city where the opera company with which he was
connected, failed. This was the more embarrassing to him, as he had in
the meantime been so unwise as to marry a pretty actress, Minna Planer,
who was destined, for a quarter of a century, to faithfully share his
experiences,--chiefly disappointments. The pittance he got as conductor
of these small German opera companies did not pay his expenses, all the
less as he was fond of luxurious living, and, like most artists, the
world over, foolishly squandered his money when he happened to have any.

At Riga, where Wagner next attempted to establish himself, the opera
company again got into trouble, and his financial straits became such
that, relying on his future ability to meet his obligations, he resolved
to leave that part of the world altogether and seek his fortune in
Paris. He knew that the Prussian Meyerbeer had won fame and fortune
there,--why should not he have the same good luck? He had unbounded
confidence in his own ability, and what increased his hopes of a
Parisian success, was that he had already completed two acts of a grand
historic opera, "Rienzi," based on Bulwer's novel, and written in the
sensational and spectacular style of Meyerbeer. He supposed that all he
had to do was to go to Paris, finish this opera, get it accepted through
the influence of his countryman and colleague, Meyerbeer, and--wake up
some morning famous and wealthy. He was not the first man who built
castles in Spain.

To-day a trip from Riga to Paris is a very simple affair. You get into a
train, and in about twenty-four hours are at your goal. In 1839 there
were no such conveniences. Wagner had to go to the Prussian seaport of
Pillau, and there board a sailing vessel which took him to London in
three weeks and a half. His journey, h