“This gold in itself is only a shining ornament in the depth of the waves (Siegfried’s Death, Act III, Sc. i), but it possesses another power, which only he who renounces love can succeed in drawing from it. (Here you have the plasmic motive up to Siegfried’s Death.  Think of all its pregnant consequences.) The capture of Alberich; the dividing of the gold between the two giant brothers; the speedy fulfilment of Alberich’s curse on these two, the one of whom immediately slays the other—­all this is the theme of this introductory play.

    “But I have already chattered too much, and even that is too
    little to give you a clear idea of the vast wealth of the
    subject-matter....

“But one other thing determined me to develop this plan; viz. the impossibility which I felt of producing Young Siegfried in anything like a suitable manner either at Weimar or anywhere else.  I cannot and will not endure any more the martyrdom of things done by halves.  With this my new conception I withdraw entirely from all connection with our theatre and public of to-day; I break decisively and for ever with the formal present.

“Do you now ask me what I propose to do with my scheme?—­First of all to carry it out, so far as my poetical and musical powers will allow.  This will occupy me at least three full years.  And so I place my future quite in R——­’s hands; God grant that they may remain unfalteringly true to me!

“I can only think of a performance under quite other conditions.  I shall erect a theatre on the banks of the Rhine, and issue invitations to a great dramatic festival.  After a year’s preparation, I shall produce my complete work in a series of four days.

“However extravagant this plan may be, it is, nevertheless, the only one to which I can devote my life and labours.  If I live to see it accomplished, I have lived gloriously; if not, I die for something grand.  Only this can still give me any pleasure.”

His creditors from Dresden were everlastingly at his heels; even in Dresden, with a substantial and regular salary, he could not keep out of debt—­though it must be remembered that older debts pursued him from the Riga days, and even earlier.  By April of 1856 the Valkyrie was scored and Siegfried begun; next year he finished the first act of the latter.  His life, apparently, went on pretty much as before; but the financial situation was rapidly becoming intolerable—­even to him.  The famous invitation to write an opera for Rio de Janeiro arrived, and he promptly set to work on the subject he had mentioned in a letter to Liszt a few years before, Tristan and Isolda.  His health grew worse than ever, and somehow he found the means to spend the winter in Venice.  Then he settled for a while in Lucerne, and completed Tristan.