『我が生涯 第1巻』

Desperate for singer intros, Wagner turns back to Meyerbeer, who introduces him to M. Gouin, a post-office official and Meyerbeer’s sole Paris agent, and Antenor Joly, director of the Theatre de la Renaissance. Gouin promises to produce Liebesverbot if the translation is completed, and when the theatre’s singers are too busy for a trial performance of the first three translated numbers, he uses Meyerbeer’s authority to secure Dorus-Gras, Widmann, and Dupont—who all previously refused Wagner—for the audience. Six months into his Paris stay, it is Easter 1840; encouraged by Gouin’s progress, Wagner takes Lehrs’ foolhardy advice to move from the cheap Quartier des Innocents to a flat near Paris’s musical centre on the Rue du Helder, unaware of the desperate financial straits he and Minna are already in. They live as cheaply as possible, paying a franc a head at a tiny restaurant, but their money melts away. Their friend Möller in Königsberg had promised to send the first profits from his business, but never writes again; they pawn every valuable they own: wedding silver, Minna’s trinkets, her old theatrical wardrobe including a silver-embroidered blue court dress once owned by the Duchess of Dessau, and finally their wedding rings. Wagner even sells the pawn tickets themselves for cash, losing the blue dress forever; Möller later admits in Dresden that he cut them off over slander he believed they spread about him, and they are devastated by the betrayal, certain of their innocence.

Small domestic diversions offer brief relief: their beloved dog, who could navigate London and Paris streets and retrieve lost items for crowds at the Quai du Pont-neuf, is stolen early in their stay, and friends call the loss lucky because they can barely feed themselves. Wagner’s sister Louisa arrives with her husband Friedrich Brockhaus on the way to Italy; they do not ask for help, and Minna assists Louisa with her shopping to avoid rousing pity. Louisa introduces them to Ernst Kietz, a kind, childlike young Dresden pastel portrait painter studying in Delaroche’s studio, whose lack of formal education and weak character will ensure his failure despite his talent, but whose simple devotion becomes a lifeline for the Wagners. He joins their evening circle almost nightly, his broken French and refusal to waste time cleaning brushes (meaning he never finishes a commissioned portrait) amuse them, and he finishes a warm pencil portrait of Wagner in 1841 that captures his cheerful resilience. The real bright spot is the renewal of their friendship with Heinrich Laube, who arrives in early 1840 with his young wife Iduna, who married him while he was imprisoned for his Berlin trial, serving his light sentence in Muskau near Prince Puckler, who smoothed his imprisonment. Laube jokes good-humouredly about Wagner’s Parisian folly, but moves to help: he secures a wealthy Leipzig friend and Avenarius relations to send Wagner six months of monthly subsidies, so they can afford the Rue du Helder flat. Minna takes over household finances, calculating that their own flat with installment payments for rent and furniture is cheaper than furnished rooms and restaurants, and they move in on April 15 with barely any luggage.