From a photograph.
]
In 1834 he secured the post of musical director at the Magdeburg
Theatre, and there, in the season of 1835–36, he produced his new work
after only ten days’ rehearsals. The result was failure, penury, and
debt. In Magdeburg he fell in love with Wilhelmina Planer, an actress,
and following her to Königsberg, when she was engaged there, he became
conductor at the theatre. On Nov. 24, 1834, they were married. In 1837
he read Bulwer’s “Rienzi,” and conceived the idea of using it as an
opera plot. In the fall of that year he became conductor at Riga, where
in 1838 he finished his libretto and began the music. He now wrote
without hope of an immediate production, but with a view to future
performance at some theatre of large resources. His mental eye, however,
fixed itself on Paris, and his “Rienzi” began to develop along lines
suggested by the popular composers of the time, Spontini, Meyerbeer,
Bellini, and Rossini. In 1839 he and his wife started for Paris, by way
of London, on a sailing ship. Stormy weather and the legend of “The
Flying Dutchman,” told by the sailors, sowed in his mind seed which grew
and subsequently blossomed. At Boulogne he became acquainted with
Meyerbeer, who gave him letters to Parisians of note in music, and in
September, 1839, he arrived in the French capital.
“Das Liebesverbot” was accepted by Jolly, director of the Renaissance
Theatre, which went into bankruptcy before the work was rehearsed.
Wagner wrote “A Faust Overture,” which also failed to come to a
performance, and other attempts were fruitless. He was now reduced to
arranging music for a publisher, and contributing to a musical journal.
He wrote at this time some charming songs and his notable article, “A
Pilgrimage to Beethoven,” and he worked hard at his “Rienzi.” An
overture, “Columbus,” was played, but was not liked. He tried to get a
position as a chorus singer at a small theatre, but was rejected. In
“the last stage of his misery,” Meyerbeer arrived, and Leon Pillet,
under his influence, allowed Wagner to have hopes of preparing a work
for the Grand Opéra. He wrote a sketch of the book of “Der Fliegende
Holländer” (“The Flying Dutchman”), and to his disgust, Pillet proposed
to buy it of him and have some one else write the music. Finally,
reserving the German rights, he did sell the sketch to Pillet for five
hundred francs. Then he wrote the libretto and began to compose his own
fine music. He had not composed for so long a time that he doubted his
powers. “As soon as the piano had arrived,” he writes, “my heart beat
fast for very fear; I dreaded to discover that I had ceased to be a
musician. I began first with the ‘Sailors’ Chorus’ and the ‘Spinning
Song’; everything sped along as though on wings, and I shouted for joy
as I felt within me that I still was a musician.” His sketch, sold to
Pillet, was made into a French opera under the title of “Le Vaisseau
Fantôme,” music by Dietsch, and failed signally. Wagner, taking no
thought for the future, but working according to his own artistic
impulses, completed his own version in seven weeks, and began to develop
the system which was to remodel opera. In the mean time “Rienzi” had
been accepted by the Dresden Court Theatre, and early in 1842 the
“Holländer” was accepted. “As regards Paris itself,” he writes, “I was
completely without prospects for several years; I therefore left it in
the spring of 1842. For the first time I saw the Rhine; with hot tears
in my eyes, I, poor artist, swore eternal fidelity to my German
fatherland.”
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