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Favourite passages at rehearsal were greeted with acclamation. A concerted number in B minor in the third finale became the “silver penny” passage, for which Tichatschek insisted a coin be paid each time—a gratuity, conscientiously handed over, that was more than once a welcome help toward the cost of their daily food. The full-dress rehearsal produced a general outburst of emotion: even Schröder-Devrient, prejudiced against her part as not the heroine’s, could only answer his questions in a voice stifled with tears. An invalid Italian singer, noticing the composer sitting hungry on a pile of boards, brought him a glass of wine and a piece of bread; the same man would later denounce him to the police.
On the morning of 20th October, the bass Risse, encountering him, gazed in silent rapture upon a man destined for such exceptional fate. The day was bright after gloomy weather, but the evening proved unique in Wagner’s experience. Sitting in a pit-box with Minna, Clara, and the Heines, he seemed to stand quite aloof from his work. The thickly crowded auditorium affected him like a continuous downpour, from which he sought shelter in the farthest corner of his box. He was unconscious of applause, and had to be forcibly reminded to appear before the curtain. His one overwhelming anxiety was the length: the first two acts had already equalled the whole of Freischütz, and the warlike third act ending at ten o’clock meant the opera had run four hours. He was sure the audience would never sit out two more acts, and apologised inwardly for his folly. Yet the singers, and Tichatschek above all, seemed to grow lustier the longer it lasted. Past midnight, the audience was still in full muster, and Wagner had at last to obey the thunderous calls of the public, side by side with his trusty singers.
The next morning he flew to the copyists with a blind rage for cutting, only to find that Tichatschek had forbidden the omissions, declaring, in a half-choked voice, “I will have none of my part cut out—it is too heavenly.” Fischer bubbled with laughter, a letter of thanks arrived from the Commissioner, and the triumph of Rienzi was at last plain.
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