During the wild days of my youth Marschner lived in Leipzig, where his operas Der Vampir and Templer und Judin saw their first appearance.  My sister Rosalie had once taken me to him in order to hear his opinion about me.  He did not treat me uncivilly, but my visit led to nothing.  I was also present at the first night of his opera Des Falkner’s Braut, which however was not a success.  Then he went to Hanover.  His opera Hans Heiling, which was originally produced in Berlin, I heard for the first time in Wurzburg; it showed vacillation in its tendency, and a decrease in constructive power.  After that he produced several other operas, such as Das Schloss am Aetna and Der Babu, which never became popular.  He was always neglected by the management at Dresden, as though they bore him some grudge, and only his Templer was played at all often.  My colleague, Reissiger, had to conduct this opera, and as in his absence I always had to take his place, it also fell to my lot on one occasion to direct a performance of this work.

This was during the time that I worked at my Tannhauser.  I remember that, although I had often conducted this opera before in Magdeburg, on this occasion the wild nature of the instrumentation and its lack of mastership affected me to such an extent that it literally made me ill, and as soon as he returned, therefore, I implored Reissiger at any cost to resume the leadership.  On the other hand, immediately after my nomination I had started on the production of Hans Heiling, but merely for the sake of the artistic honour.  The insufficient distribution of the parts, however, a difficulty which in those days could not be overcome, made a complete success impossible.  In any case, though, the whole spirit of the work seemed to be terribly old-fashioned.

I now heard that Marschner had finished another opera called Adolph von Nassau, and in a criticism of this work, of the genuineness of which I was unable to judge, particular stress was laid upon the ‘patriotic and noble German atmosphere’ of this new creation.  I did my best to make the Dresden theatre take the initiative, and to urge Luttichau to secure this opera before it was produced elsewhere.  Marschner, who did not seem to have been treated with particular consideration by the Hanoverian opera authorities, accepted the invitation with great joy, sent his score, and declared himself willing to come to Dresden for the first performance.  Luttichau, however, was not anxious to see him take his place at the head of the orchestra; while I, also, was of the opinion that the too frequent appearance of outside conductors, even if it were for the purpose of conducting their own works, would not only lead to confusion, but might also fail to be as amusing and instructive as Spontini’s visit had proved to be.  It was therefore decided that I should conduct the new opera myself.  And how I lived to regret it!