ILLUSTRATIONS.  Page

Richard Wagner                           Frontispiece
Banishment of Rienzi                                7
Senta                                              23
Tannhaeuser and Venus                               38
Ortrud kneeling before Elsa                        56
Tristan’s Death                                    72
Walther crowned by Eva                             88
The Rhine Maidens                                 105
Brunhilde discovering Siegmund and Sieglinde      120
Siegfried and Mime                                138
Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens                   154
Parsifal in the Enchanted Garden                  172

[Illustration:  Banishment of Rienzi.]

RIENZI,

The last of the tribunes.

Wagner was greatly troubled in the beginning of his career about the choice of subjects for his operas.  His first famous work, ‘Rienzi,’ is founded upon the same historical basis as Bulwer’s novel bearing the same name, and is a tragic opera in five acts.  The composer wrote the poem and the first two acts of the score in 1838, during his residence at Riga, and from there carried it with him to Boulogne.  There he had an interview with Meyerbeer, after his memorable sea journey.  Wagner submitted his libretto and the score for the first acts to that famous composer, who is reported to have said, ’Rienzi is the best opera-book extant,’ and who gave him introductions to musical directors and publishers in Paris.  In spite of this encouraging verdict on Meyerbeer’s part, Wagner soon discovered that there was no chance of success for ‘Rienzi’ in France, and, after completing the score while dwelling at Meudon, he forwarded it in 1841 to Dresden.  Here the opera found friends in the tenor Tichatscheck and the chorus-master Fisher, and when it was produced in 1842 it was received with great enthusiasm.  The opera, which gave ample opportunity for great scenic display, was so long, however, that the first representation lasted from six o’clock to midnight.  But when Wagner would fain have made excisions, the artists themselves strenuously opposed him, and preferred to give the opera in two successive evenings.  At the third representation Wagner himself conducted with such success that ‘he was the hero of the day.’  This great triumph was reviewed with envy by the admirers of the Italian school of music, and some critics went so far in their partisanship as to denounce the score as ‘blatant, and at times almost vulgar.’  Notwithstanding these adverse criticisms, the opera continued to be played with much success at Dresden, and was produced at Berlin some years later, and at Vienna in 1871.