 In 1862, Schnorr and his wife met Wagner himself in Biebrich near Wiesbaden; Wagner asked them to sing passages from his new opera, "Tristan und Isolde", while he accompanied them at the piano.Apparently, the composer was impressed by the results.An attempt to stage the yet-to-be-performed opera in Vienna failed after over 70 rehearsals, not least because the resident tenor was unable to master the taxing role of Tristan.