I would really rather you heard of it from someone else, for I must tell you that never, as they all assure me, has any opera been received for the first time in Dresden with such enthusiasm as my Rienzi. There was an uproar, a revolution, throughout the town. I was called tumultuously four times. They tell me that Meyerbeer's success with the performance of his Huguenots here was not to be compared with my Rienzi's. The second performance is to be the day after to-morrow and every seat is booked already for a third. I am terribly exhausted and unstrung. After the second performance I will write to you fully. The performance was entrancingly lovely - Tichatschek, Devrient, everything, everything at a pitch of perfection never known here before. Triumph! Triumph!
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 75