Autograph letter signed ('Richard Wagner') to [Ferdinand] Heine, Meudon, 14 October 1841

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Autograph letter signed ('Richard Wagner') to [Ferdinand] Heine, Meudon, 14 October 1841
In German. Closely written on four pages, 208 x 133mm, bifolium, Wagner’s embossed monogram at upper left. Provenance: Sotheby's, 18 May 1995, lot 303.

A long, early letter about the first staging of Rienzi in Dresden. Writing to an old family friend in Dresden, Wagner bombards him with questions in view of the proposed staging of Rienzi there, where it is planned to follow on from an opera by Carl Gottlieb Reissiger: he questions whether the management of the opera house understand the requirements of the opera, also conveying his amazement that in spite of his many efforts to contact the great soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient he has not heard from her: he asks Heine to talk to her and discover if she is indeed committed to singing in Rienzi, also asking similarly after the tenor Josef Tichatschek. In short, he is concerned that the opera management is not taking the staging of Rienzi seriously, and asks Heine to establish whether this is in fact the case, concluding by noting that he has written to Fischer about the staging of the second act.

'Are they thinking seriously about my opera? Are preparations being made and costs of equipment being considered? Admittedly I am still uncertain as to whether Reissiger's opera has already been shown; – if this is not yet the case, I can clearly see that the preparation for my opera cannot yet be considered materially; – however, if they are not to take Rienzi lightly, they must be told in advance how it is intended to deal with it. ... If they look at Rienzi merely as an opera where you ask shortly before the performance, "What are we going to have done to it?" – I would consider that a great misfortune' (translation)

The project of staging Rienzi in Dresden owed much to the intervention of Meyerbeer – although it was not in fact to take place until 20 October 1842, more than a year after this letter. The first performance, with Schröder-Devrient and Tichatschek taking the leading roles, was an enormous success, in spite of the running time exceeding six hours. Wagner was at this date living in Meudon in order to avoid imprisonment for debt. Sämtliche Briefe, ed. Strobel and Wolf, 173.