Richard Wagner, Autobiographical sketch (to 1842), translated and edited by Thomas Grey

At the beginning of 1843 Wagner was basking in the glow of long-awaited success. After two and a half years of ignominious struggle in Paris, where he had hoped to become the next Meyerbeer, Wagner had returned to his native Saxony in the spring of 1842 in order to oversee the premiere of his recently completed grand opera Rienzi in Dresden. Given that his first opera, Die Feen, never saw the boards at all in his lifetime and that his second opera, Das Liebesverbot, experienced only one radically abortive performance in provincial Magdeburg, the production of Rienzi by the Royal Saxon Court Theatre in Dresden on 20 October 1842 was a momentous occasion for the young composer.