Rienzi: A Critical Introduction

Two Wagner experts will engage in a conversation about his early success, Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen.  Topics will include the plot, the source material, reflections on the influences of then-current opera composition, and indications of the innovations to come in Wagner’s next work, Der fliegende Holländer.

John Deathridge’s many publications about Wagner include Wagner’s ‘Rienzi’: a Reappraisal based on a Study of the Sketches and Drafts (Oxford 1977), still the only academic monograph devoted exclusively to the opera. John lives in Cambridge England where he was a Fellow of King’s College and Lecturer (then Reader) at the University from 1983 to 1996, after which he was appointed to the King Edward VII Chair of Music at King’s College London. Now Emeritus after retiring in 2013, he continues to pursue his interest in performance and research. His English translation of Der Ring des Nibelungen was published by Random House as a Penguin Classic in 2018 and his current work includes a fresh look at Beethoven and the Enlightenment. Connections between Beethoven and Rienzi – and the Bayreuth Festival as a whole – will inform part of the discussion.

John J. H. Muller IV is a faculty emeritus of The Juilliard School, where for many years he taught a wide variety of courses in the music history department. From 2010 to 2019, he presented lectures for the Wagner Society of New York at the Bayreuth Festival and for other Wagner Societies in the United States. Prof. Muller has also been a noted speaker for the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the American Psychoanalytic Association. His essay on Parsifal appeared in the book, Wagner Outside the Ring, and a chapter on Tristan und Isolde was included in Opera on the Couch, published in 2022.

Livestream: the event will be livestreamed via Zoom only; no replay available.

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