Hiller’s time in Dresden marked his initial encounters with Richard Wagner, who had become deputy Kapellmeister there in 1843, following the success of the premiere of his Rienzi (staged in Dresden the previous year). In his autobiography, written during 1865–70 when he was settling scores, real and imaginary, following the death of Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner is typically patronising about Hiller at this period, who, we are told, "behaved in a particularly charming and agreeable manner during those days." Antonka is described as "an extraordinary Polish Jewess who had caused herself to be baptised a Protestant together with her husband"; she is later shown as "enlistthe support of a large number of her compatriots [... for the opera of her husband." (The opera was Hiller’s "Konradin").