Peter Bassett, How Tristan and Isolde Almost Went Down to Rio

July 2021, Volume 15, Number 2, 54–7.

In 1857 Richard Wagner was in exile in Zurich and in dire financial straits. His publishers and potential patrons were losing patience with the seemingly endless Ring project. He was unable to return to any of the German kingdoms and principalities because of a warrant for his arrest after the failed Dresden revolution of 1849, and he was desperate to find a patron.

In March 1857 he received a communication from Dr Ernesto Ferreira França, son of the former Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs and loyal subject of the Emperor Dom Pedro II (Gonzaga de Bragança e Borbón). The letter invited Wagner to settle in Rio de Janeiro and write and perform his operas there.