 Although he never abandoned the idea of composing a full opera , and considered many subjects – including that of the Nibelung saga later adapted by Wagner – he never wrote more than a few pages of sketches for any project . In Mendelssohn 's last years the opera manager Benjamin Lumley tried to contract him to write an opera from Shakespeare 's The Tempest on a libretto by Eugène Scribe , and even announced it as forthcoming in 1847 , the year of Mendelssohn 's death . The libretto was eventually set by Fromental Halévy . At his death Mendelssohn left some sketches for an opera on the story of the Lorelei . 
