to those who desire to trace the master’s development ab ovo.  Both in the melodies and rhythms employed it is possible to trace the germs of what afterwards became strongely marked characteristics.  Wagner himself never saw ‘Die Feen’ performed.  In 1833 he could not persuade any German manager to produce it, and, in the changes which soon came over his musical sympathies, ‘Die Feen’ was laid upon the shelf and probably forgotten.  It was not until 1888, five years after the composer’s death, that the general enthusiasm for everything connected with Wagner induced the authorities at Munich to produce it.  Since then it has been performed with comparative frequency, and formed a part of the cycles of Wagner’s works which were given in 1894 and 1895.  Wagner’s next work was of a very different nature.  ’Das Liebesverbot’ was a frank imitation of the Italian school.  He himself confesses that ’if any one should compare this score with that of “Die Feen” he would find it difficult to understand how such a complete change in my tendencies could have been brought about in so short a time.’  The incident which turned his thoughts into this new channel was a performance of Bellini’s ‘Capuletti e Montecchi,’ in which Madame Schroeder-Devrient sang the part of Romeo.  This remarkable woman exercised in those days an almost hypnotic influence upon Wagner, and the beauty and force of this particular impersonation impressed him so vividly that he relinquished his admiration of Weber and the Teutonic school and plunged headlong into the meretricious sensuousness of Italy.  The libretto of ‘Das Liebesverbot’ is founded upon Shakespeare’s ‘Measure for Measure,’ It was performed for the first and only time at Magdeburg in 1836, and failed completely; but it is only just to say that its failure seems to have been due more to insufficient rehearsal than to the weakness of the score.  After the success of ‘Die Feen’ at Munich, it naturally occurred to the authorities there to revive Wagner’s one other juvenile opera.  The score of ‘Das Liebesverbot’ was accordingly unearthed, and the parts were allotted.  The first rehearsal, however, decided its fate.  The opera was so ludicrous and unblushing an imitation of Donizetti and Bellini, that the artists could scarcely sing for laughter.  Herr Vogl, the eminent tenor, and one or two others were still in favour of giving it as a curiosity, but in the end it was thought better to drop it altogether, less on account of the music than because of the licentious character of the libretto.

‘Rienzi,’ the next in order of Wagner’s operas, was written on the lines of French opera.  Wagner hoped to see it performed in Paris, and throughout the score he kept the methods of Meyerbeer and Spontini consistently in his mind’s eye.  There is very little attempt at characterisation, but the opportunities for spectacular display are many and various.  In later years Meyerbeer paid Wagner the compliment of saying that the libretto of ‘Rienzi’ was the best he had ever read.  ‘Rienzi’ was produced at Dresden in 1842.