Rienzi

[Alison]

I confess I've never heard this opera. What an absolutely belting Overture though !

How good or bad or is the whole thing ? And which recording to get ?

[LeMartinPecheur]

I think it's fair to say that Rienzi sets out an operatic time-frame that Wagner would only later learn how to fill - it was 5 LPs'-worth in the good old days, now 3 CDs. His next go, Flying Dutchman, is much more to the point, and therefore stageable, a significant matter for a still unknown operatic composer presumably. It's a vast historical tale of Shakespearean proportions, based on a novel by Bulwer Lytton. Not sure what W's operatic models would have been c.1838, maybe Meyerbeer Les Huguenots(1836)?? [PS John Deathridge says Spontini's Fernand Cortez was more of a model than Meyerbeer - Wagner heard this in Berlin in 1836. So if you know your Cortez and your Bulwer Lytton you'll know what to expect...]

In short, Rienzi is very, very lo-o-o-ong, and IMHO pretty tedious, and I'll settle for just an occasional hearing of the overture! But I did hear it through at least once on R3, though that was many years ago...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

They did a complete Wagner Opera cycle on Radio 3 and for once, I seem to recall, we had a completely uncut Rienzi.

[Bryn]

Yes, back in the mid-'70s Sir Edward Downes reassembled the original complete version and Radio 3 broadcast a studio performance of it which, "for contractual reasons" cannot be rebroadcast. However, the recording has appeared on CD and the adventurous can find FLACs of it online. I have it on reel-to-reel which I can no longer play, somewhere. I would think that Downes led recording is the one to seek out.

[Bryn]

I have checked out some 128kbps mono mp3s of the Downes version. Mono? Surely the 1976 broadcast was in stereo. I will try and check out one of the FLAC versions later. Perhaps that will be in stereo.

[Bryn]

The FLACs I have investigated are indeed stereo and derive from the Czech Republic made Pronto PO - 1040 4 CD set (almost certainly an unauthorized release). One thing that set lacks but which is included in the mono mp3 downloads is the announcer's introduction. That is well worth hearing and it matters little that it is only in mono.

http://shop.strato.com/epages/62467205.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62467205/Products/PO-1040

[Alison]

Thanks, good work Nethers. I always enjoyed Ted on the rostrum.

[salymap]

I'm very fond of the Rienzi overture too, but have no wish to seek out the opera, with hearing and age problems. The same applies to Das Liebesverbot [sp?] overture.

[Stanley Stewart]

I recall an ENO 1983 production of Rienzi which was my intro to the work of director Nicholas Hytner Michael Billington in the Guardian welcomed its 'strong theatrical flair' although the production in another era of austerity cuts wasn't revived. Worth noting that seat prices at the time ranged from £3 50 to £15.50 at The Coli; ROH £1 in upper slips to £42. Updated, David Fielding's set evoked Mussolini's Rome and it is the stark setting with strong visual imagery which lingers in my memory. It attempted to show 'a modern charismatic super-leader' but Kenneth Woollham's portrayal of a well-meaning figure in his early sixties didn't equate to the 'apparatus of repression' (Michael Tanner (TLS) in the production. The overture remains a terrible beauty!

[Bert Coules]

I've been lucky enough to see two different stagings of Rienzi: the first was the ENO 1983 show, which was one in a series of budget productions (the chorus was in serried seated ranks and sang from scores, both being a saving of time and money) and I remember it as inventive and effective, with at least two rather splendid theatrical highlights. The second was a semi-pro University performance, which could have been a disaster but was in fact something of a triumph, rising magnificently over its many potential shortcomings.

Of course in both cases the pleasure and novelty of seeing the work at all provided the major impact of the evening, and for me at least it's a piece well worth the seeing: the combination and clever juxtaposition of intimate scenes and spectacle makes a comparison to Aida not as outrageous as it might sound, and there are far less worthy operas firmly entrenched in the standard repertoire.

Bert