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Rienzi review – Wagner’s early opera makes its Bayreuth debut as frenzied contemporary election drama
Wagner's early opera Rienzi has received its first ever staging at the Bayreuth festival, opening the 150th anniversary season as an exception to the festival's usual canon of his 10 "mature" works. The opera has long been avoided at Bayreuth partly because it was Adolf Hitler's favourite work and because no authentic complete score survives, its handwritten manuscript having been given to Hitler and subsequently lost. The production, directed by Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka, reimagines 14th-century Rome as a dystopian near-future and casts the story as a frenzied contemporary election drama referencing recent US politics, though the review judges the staging overloaded with ideas.
Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann was praised for bringing tenderness and grandeur to a score that mixes French grand-opera scale with an Italianate sound and only occasional hints of Wagner's mature style. Andreas Schager led a strong cast as Rienzi with a powerful but largely unvaried tenor, supported by Andreas Bauer Kanabas, Michael Nagy and Gabriela Scherer, while Jennifer Holloway's reworked, "soft-butch lesbian" take on Adriano was singled out as the standout performance.
In short
- Wagner's Rienzi debuts at Bayreuth for the festival's 150th anniversary season
- Staging recasts it as a modern election drama, criticised as overstuffed
- Jennifer Holloway's Adriano praised as the standout of a strong cast
Explained simply
Rienzi is an early opera by Richard Wagner, composed in 1842 and based on the true story of a 14th-century Roman leader. It is one of Wagner's less well-known works and stands apart stylistically from the German operas for which he is most famous.
The Bayreuth Festival in Bavaria has never staged Rienzi until now, despite being the world's premier venue for Wagner's operas. The work has been absent from the festival for over a century, partly because it was Adolf Hitler's favourite opera and partly because its only known complete manuscript was given to Hitler and lost during the Second World War. These factors made authentic performance difficult and the work uncomfortable for a venue seeking to distance itself from Nazi associations.
The inclusion of Rienzi in Bayreuth's 150th anniversary season represents a shift in how the festival engages with Wagner's complete catalogue. The production reimagines the 14th-century Roman setting as a contemporary political drama.
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