But on the first of European operatic stages it [Tristan and Isolde] was never once performed during Richard Wagner's life; the Vienna Hofoper, having owed him a debt of honour for a score of years, only paid it to his manes. Tristan and Isolde was set and mounted with the utmost splendour in the spring of 1884; its cast comprised Winkelmann, Scaria and Frau Materna; its "tone-poem" was interpreted by the finest operatic orchestra in the world; but it is a pity that so handsome an amende honorable could not have been made but one twelvemonth sooner, to the living Master, instead of to his justly offended shade.