After selling his Flying Dutchman sketches Wagner at once set to work on his own version. He had sent the score of Rienzi to Dresden, where it had aroused the enthusiasm of the chorus master, Wilhelm Fischer, and of the tenor, Tiehatschek. It was accepted and produced Oc tober 20, 1842. Schroeder- Devrient was the Adriano, and Tichatschek the Rienzi. Rienzi's success led to the production of De" iliegende Bottum/el-, January 2, 1843. which was re ceived with only moderate favor. Plainly this sombre but beautiful work was ahead of the times. Spar, who produced it at sel the following June, was the only eminent musician who then approached Wagner with cor diality. Had Wagner not been as true as steel in all matters relating to art. he would have taken his cue from the ill success of the Dutoh man and reverted to the brilliant style of But Tannhouser was his answer to the public that had failed to appreciate The Flying Dutch man.
Meanwhile, in ,Tanunry, 1843, he had become one of the conductors of the Dresden opera. His revival and revision of Ghlek's Iphigeniu in dulls attracted much attention. as did also his per formance of the Ninth Symphony, with new and striking readings of the score.
Tannlainser was produced at Dresden, October 19, 1845. and proved even a greater puzzle to the public than the Flying Dutch MU a. Liszt, how ever, brought it out at Weimar late in 1848, an aehievement which led to the now• historic Wag ner-Liszt friendship, in which Liszt played one of the noblest and most self-sacrificing Ades ever taken by genius. "I once more have courage to suffer," wrote Wagner after hearing of the Weimar performance; while Liszt replied: "So much do 1 owe to your bold and high genius, to the fiery and magnifieent pages of your Tann, hiiuser, that I feel quite awkward in accepting the gratitude you are good enough to express with regard to the two performances I had the honor and happiness to conduct." kohengrin was finished in 1848, but Dresden was afraid to produce it. Undaunted, however, Wagner took up other subjects. Sketches for an opera on the Saviour are interesting in of his allegorical treatment of the subject more than thirty years later in Parsifal. The story of Barbarossa also was considered, but abandoned for the Nibelung myth. The drama Nicyfri,d8 Tod, in alliterative verse. which formed the basis of the f;iillerddmincrung, was written in the autumn of 1818. More than a quarter of a cen tury and much heart-breaking storm and stress were to intervene before Wagner's ambitions re garding the work into which this drama devel oped were realized.
A venture in publishing his scores resulted in great embarrassment. Believing that political changes might lead to more advanced ideas in art, he joined in the revolutionary agita tion of 1848-49. When the revolution failed he fled first to Paris and then to Zurich. He was so impoverished that Liszt was obliged to fur nish Frau Wagner with the nwalis of joining her husband. and in spite of the moral grit whieh came to Wagner through his passionate devotion and loyalty to his art, it is questionable if he could have stood the strain without the aid which his brother artist so generously extended to him. An even greater solace was Liszt's produe
tion of Lohengrin at Weimar in August, 1850. It acted as a tonic on Wagner. lie became all activity. For, though at a distance, he directed the production as well as he could through nu merous written instructions. This performance was one of the most important events in Wag ner's career. It started the now historic 'Wag ner question,' which was fought omit in a fierce war of words, with vituperation almost unheard of in art matters, on the part of Wagner's (metnies, covering many years; the Wagner cause, however, forging steadily ahead and beeoming finally triumphant. A letter from Wagner to Liszt, November 20, 1851, shows that the Nibe lung dramas were written backward. Finding that certain narrative episodes in G of Crdil MCI' II y needed to be set forth on the stage, he wrote Siegfried. Finding that even this did not wholly clear up matters. he wrote Die re, and as a further explanatory prelude to these three, Das llheingold. The same letter proves that he also appreciated the impossibility of producing, the work except "at a great festival. to be arranged perhaps especially for the purpose of this performance." Wagner finished the composition of Rheingold in May. 1854. but there is evidence that the music of the "Ring" had been in his mind some time before he penned the score. Dr. William Mason visited Wagner in Zurich in June. 1852, and the composer gave him in autograph the Dragon Motive essentially as it is found in the first act sicyfried. Vet the music of this act was not sketched out until several years later. In 1855 he was somewhat relieved financially by an en gagement to conduct the London Philharmonic concerts. For that conservative body lie was, however, far too progressive. "The directors con tinually referred me to what they chose to call the Memdelssudm traditions." :Meanwhile the composition of the Ring continued, but not with out many moments of depression. "Brihmhilde sleeps. 1 am, alas, still awake." lie wrote to Liszt; and again (January, 1857). "My nervous system resembles a pianoforte eery much out of tuna. and on that instrument I am expected to produce Xicatricd. Well. l fancy the strings will break at last. and then there will be an end. We cannot alter it. This is a life fit for a clog." In 1657 he was so disheartened that he aban doned the composition of the Ring at the Waft/ wet/co scene in Niegfried and turned to Tristan, probably instigated by a call from an agent of the Emperor of Bra zil, who asked if Wagner would compose an opera. for an Italian troupe at lag de Janeiro and conduct the work him self. Tristan was intended to be a 'thoroughly practicable work'—short and comparatively easy to perform. As a fact it is the most advanced of Wagner's music-dramas. In Vienna, in 1861, it was pronounced impossible after fifty-seven re hearsals, and its production could not be se cured until 18115, at Munich, after King Ludwig of Bavaria had become Wagner's patron.