It was a journey worthy of a dramatic painting – hideously stormy, delayed, lengthy, and mightily uncomfortable. Wagner and his wife did not arrive in Paris until September, having taken the circuitous route via Norway and England, being smuggled into Prussia without their passports (which had been impounded by their creditors). Minna was injured in a carriage accident during the journey.

Their arrival in Paris was scarcely triumphant – they had scarcely any money and lived in wretched poverty for more than two years, Wagner earning just enough to live on by doing hackwork for the publishing house of Schlesinger, writing popular little melodies, and taking up his writer’s pen again with articles and stories for the Revue et gazette musicale (in payment for having had an elaborate and expensive frontispiece engraved by Schlesinger, its editor, for a self-published song with which Wagner hoped to impress Paris musical society and earn money in Paris - alas for his hopes!) and the Dresden-published Abend-Zeitung (Evening Paper).

Even the kind influence of Meyerbeer, whom Wagner met there, failed to lead to any appointments for Wagner in Paris. He was simply not one of the “in” crowd, having no influential connections and no wealth. He spent what time he could spare on completing Rienzi, which was finished by November 1840 – and then he began work on a new opera, Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman). This would be in three acts rather than five, and this time Wagner worked on the libretto and music almost simultaneously. Der fliegende Holländer was completed in November 1841. Survival for him and Minna was precarious, and entailed borrowing money from friends, selling furniture, and pawning any valuables – even to the point of selling the pawn tickets. Even their wedding rings were sold to finance their stay, Wagner flat-out refusing to admit the undertaking was ill-advised.

The Rienzi success

Wagner’s efforts to have Rienzi produced finally resulted in a positive reply in 1941 – not from Paris, but from the theatre at Dresden. They would produce it the next year, and buoyed by this good news, Wagner began working on two new opera librettos, another five-act grand opera called Die Sarazenin, and a three-act Romantic opera called Die Bergwerke zu Falun. Neither of these did he set.

The Wagners left Paris for Germany on the 7th April 1842, disappointed at Paris’s cold shoulder towards the genius of Wagner (which he was sure the Parisians should have welcomed), but happy and anxious to see Rienzi performed. Wagner then travelled to Dresden, his wife joining him later. The work premiered on 20th October 1842, with Wagner conducting. It was a triumph, and led directly to Wagner being offered the post of music conductor at the Dresden court. It was his first notable appointment, and he accepted to the great relief of Minna, who had borne so much poverty and hardship in supporting her husband’s ambition. During Wagner’s time in Dresden, Rienzi was performed several times, always to acclaim. Der fliegende Hollander premiered in Dresden on the 2nd January 1843, and was less popular – Rienzi was revived in order to maintain Wagner’s popularity.