Richard Wagner
Wagner always liked spending money, and he soon found he owed money to a lot of people, so he went away to Paris where he lived for three years. He was not successful at all there, none of the French musicians showed any interest in him and he was very poor. He still managed to write an opera Rienzi in 1841, and this was soon followed by Der fliegende Holländer, (The Flying Dutchman), which still remains a favourite to opera lovers today. It was first performed in Dresden in 1843. The audience did not like it much because they were used to operas like Rienzi which were written in the old way. Wagner was given the job of court opera composer in Dresden. He stayed there until 1849. During that time he worked very hard to make opera performances better, improve the orchestra and train the singers. In 1845 he wrote another great opera, Tannhäuser. People gradually started to understand the way that Wagner's music was telling the drama of the story. After this all his operas were great successes, although there always remained some people who hated his music, e.g. the music critic Eduard Hanslick.