"This gold in itself is only a shining ornament in the depth of the waves (_Siegfried's Death_, Act III, Sc. i), but it possesses another power, which only he who renounces love can succeed in drawing from it. (Here you have the plasmic motive up to _Siegfried's Death_. Think of all its pregnant consequences.) The capture of Alberich; the dividing of the gold between the two giant brothers; the speedy fulfilment of Alberich's curse on these two, the one of whom immediately slays the other--all this is the theme of this introductory play. "But I have already chattered too much, and even that is too little to give you a clear idea of the vast wealth of the subject-matter.... "But one other thing determined me to develop this plan; viz. the impossibility which I felt of producing _Young Siegfried_ in anything like a suitable manner either at Weimar or anywhere else. I cannot and will not endure any more the martyrdom of things done by halves. With this my new conception I withdraw entirely from all connection with our theatre and public of to-day; I break decisively and for ever with the formal present. "Do you now ask me what I propose to do with my scheme?--First of all to carry it out, so far as my poetical and musical powers will allow. This will occupy me at least three full years. And so I place my future quite in R----'s hands; God grant that they may remain unfalteringly true to me! "I can only think of a performance under quite other conditions. I shall erect a theatre on the banks of the Rhine, and issue invitations to a great dramatic festival. After a year's preparation, I shall produce my complete work in a series of four days. "However extravagant this plan may be, it is, nevertheless, the only one to which I can devote my life and labours. If I live to see it accomplished, I have lived gloriously; if not, I die for something grand. Only this can still give me any pleasure." His creditors from Dresden were everlastingly at his heels; even in Dresden, with a substantial and regular salary, he could not keep out of debt--though it must be remembered that older debts pursued him from the Riga days, and even earlier. By April of 1856 the _Valkyrie_ was scored and _Siegfried_ begun; next year he finished the first act of the latter. His life, apparently, went on pretty much as before; but the financial situation was rapidly becoming intolerable--even to him. The famous invitation to write an opera for Rio de Janeiro arrived, and he promptly set to work on the subject he had mentioned in a letter to Liszt a few years before, _Tristan and Isolda_. His health grew worse than ever, and somehow he found the means to spend the winter in Venice. Then he settled for a while in Lucerne, and completed _Tristan_.