“And now about Dresden. I was engaged to give two concerts there, and found chorus, orchestra, and a noble tenor all complete! Nowhere else in Germany have I happened on such wealth. Above all, I found a friend--devoted, energetic, and enthusiastic--Charles Lipinski, whom I knew in Paris. He so worked upon the musicians, by firing them with ambition to do better than Leipzig, that they were rabid for rehearsals. We had four, and they would gladly have had a fifth had there been time. “The Dresden _Kapelle_ is directed by Reissiger, of whom we know little in Paris, and by young Richard Wagner, who spent a long time with us, without, however, making himself known except by a few articles in the _Gazette Musicale_. He has only just received his appointment, and, proud and pleased, is doing his very best to help me. “He bore endless privations in France, with the added bitterness of obscurity, yet he returned to Saxony and boldly wrote and composed a five-act opera, _Rienzi_, of which the success was so great that he followed it up with the _Flying Dutchman_. “A man who could, twice over, write words and music for an opera must be exceptionally gifted, and the King of Saxony did well to give him the appointment. “I only heard the second part of _Rienzi_, which is too long to be played in one evening, and I cannot, in one hearing, pretend to know it thoroughly, but I particularly noted a fine prayer and a triumphal march. “The score of the _Flying Dutchman_ struck me by its sombre colouring, and the clever effect of some tempestuous motifs. But there, as in _Rienzi_, I thought he abused the use of the _tremolo_--sign of a certain lazy attitude of mind against which he must guard. “In spite of that, all honour to the royal remembrance that has saved from despair such a highly endowed young artist. “My concerts were successful, the second even more so than the first. What the public liked best were the _Requiem_--although we could not give the most difficult numbers of it--and the _5th May Cantata_, no doubt because the memory of Napoleon is as dear to the Germans now as to us French.[19] “I made the acquaintance of that wonderful English harpist, Parish-Alvars. He is indeed the Liszt of the harp! He produces the most extraordinary effects, and has written a fantasia on _Moses_ that Thalberg has most happily arranged for the piano. “Why on earth does he not come to Paris? “When I left Dresden to go back to Leipzig, Lipinski heard that Mendelssohn had put the finale of _Romeo and Juliet_ in rehearsal, and told me that if he could get a holiday he should go over and hear it.