Lobmann, my right-hand man in the orchestra, and never gave it
another thought from that day to this. I managed, however, to get
to work on the libretto of Rienzi, which I had sketched out at
Blasewitz. I developed it from every point of view, on so
extravagant a scale, that with this work I deliberately cut off
all possibility of being tempted by circumstances to produce it
anywhere but on one of the largest stages in Europe.

But while this helped to strengthen my endeavour to escape from
all the petty degradations of stage life, new complications arose
which affected me more and more seriously, and offered further
opposition to my aims. The prima donna engaged by Holtei had
failed us, and we were therefore without a singer for grand
opera. Under the circumstances, Holtei joyfully agreed to my
proposal to ask Amalie, Minna's sister (who was glad to accept an
engagement that brought her near me), to come to Riga at once. In
her answer to me from Dresden, where she was then living, she
informed me of Minna's return to her parents, and of her present
miserable condition owing to a severe illness. I naturally took
this piece of news very coolly, for what I had heard about Minna
since she left me for the last time had forced me to authorise my
old friend at Konigsberg to take steps to procure a divorce. It
was certain that Minna had stayed for some time at a hotel in
Hamburg with that ill-omened man, Herr Dietrich, and that she had
spread abroad the story of our separation so unreservedly that
the theatrical world in particular had discussed it in a manner
that was positively insulting to me. I simply informed Amalie of
this, and requested her to spare me any further news of her
sister.