Riga as a Wagner Center

A remarkable difference between the western and eastern sides of the Baltic Sea is that operatic productions appeared in Scandinavia much later than in the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire, especially in Livonia. Prior to the 1870s, Wagner's music was mainly heard at home, in restaurants, and in concerts, not in opera houses. This is exemplified by the fact that Tannhäuser, which proved to be crucial to the success of the Wagnerian reception, was not performed as a total work in Copenhagen until as late as 1875 (and a year later in Stockholm and Christiania), whereas the same opera had already been heard in Riga, Tallinn, and Helsinki in the 1850s.

The lively operatic activity in Riga made it the most significant center on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea (for a view of Riga, see figure 3.1). Paradoxically, Wagner himself had estimated that Riga would never be a performance place for his works, and had, therefore, left Riga, with great expectations, for Paris. However, the Riga German theater was one of the first playhouses to become interested in Wagner's works. Riga was an active business center with a rising population, and its German bourgeoisie willingly supported the arts. At the beginning of the 1840s, the Riga German theater's director was Johann Hoffmann (1805–65), who had been a singer in the house (1837–39), during Wagner's residence. In 1839, he was chosen as acting director or manager, and continued to hold the post until 1843. Harsh criticism of the theater's board of directors appeared in the town during the spring of the same year. The Rigasche Stadtblätter stated that Riga had perhaps been in the vanguard of German theaters, but that period was now in the distant past. It is possible that this remark provoked the board of directors into looking for new music.

After his desperate Paris years, Richard Wagner returned to Germany in 1842, having been engaged as conductor of the Royal Dresden theater in Saxony. Wagner succeeded in having his new work, Der fliegende Holländer, included in the theater's repertoire; the opera was premiered in Dresden on 2 January 1843.