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Staging the story of the Italian political figure Rienzi as that of a dictator in 20th-century Germany was an inspired idea. This revival was a rare occasion to experience Wagner's early opera. 

Oper Leipzig served up Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen as the closing piece of its Wagner Festtage “Frühe Werke”. 

Early works by major composers can be fascinating. We try to see in them premonitions of the greatness to come, or hope they will cast light on a more familiar later work. The Opera Orchestra of New York’s concert presentation of Rienzi, Richard Wagner’s third opera, was fairly useless in this regard: most of Rienzi sounds nothing like mature Wagner.