feelings, that he was appointed to the dignified post of musical
conductor at the Royal Theatre, in which capacity he long
continued to do honour to German dramatic music in conjunction
with Wilhelm Taubert.

I must give J. Hoffmann, who from this time forward was the
manager of the Riga theatre, the credit of having felt the
treachery practised upon me very deeply indeed. He told me that
his contract with Dorn bound him only for one year, and that the
moment the twelve months had elapsed he wished to come to a fresh
agreement with me. As soon as this was known, my patrons in Riga
came forward with offers of teaching engagements and arrangements
for sundry concerts, by way of compensating me for the year's
salary which I should lose by being away from my work as a
conductor. Though I was much gratified by these offers, yet, as I
have already pointed out, the longing to break loose from the
kind of theatrical life which I had experienced up to that time
so possessed me that I resolutely seized this chance of
abandoning my former vocation for an entirely new one. Not
without some shrewdness, I played upon my wife's indignation at
the treachery I had suffered, in order to make her fall in with
my eccentric notion of going to Paris. Already in my conception
of Rienzi I had dreamed of the most magnificent theatrical
conditions, but now, without halting at any intermediate
stations, my one desire was to reach the very heart of all
European grand opera. While still in Magdeburg I had made H.
Konig's romance, Die Hohe Braut, the subject of a grand opera in
five acts, and in the most luxurious French style. After the
scenic draft of this opera, which had been translated into
French, was completely worked out, I sent it from Konigsberg to