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- [00:00]
A
Sam.
- [00:46]
B
Welcome to another edition of Opera for Everyone. I'm your host, Pat Wright, and today I am joined by two guest co hosts. You know them, you love them. Kathleen Vanderwil.
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C
Hi. So glad to be here again.
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D
And Grant, delighted to be here.
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B
This is quite the opera that we're going to do today. This is Richard Wagner's early opera, one that he, in his lifetime, distanced himself from somewhat, though. Truly his first big successful opera. Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. This is an opera in the grand opera style, designed so it could be performed, for instance, on the Paris Opera stage. It's got the five acts. It is monumental, monumental in theme, monumental in size, and lots of monumental music.
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D
And lots of literal monuments. I mean, we're in Rome, for heaven's sake.
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B
We are. We are in Rome. Right. The tribunes here refers to the tribunes that honestly, I think of in. In the times of ancient Rome.
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A
Hmm.
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D
Interesting that it is.
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B
We're going to. That. We will certainly get into that. But I would just like to highlight the fact that I'm so glad to have both of you here today because we're going to really lean on Kathleen for the story elements, the literature. You're prepped on that, Kathleen.
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C
I am as prepped as one can be when trying to dig up a. A novel from 1830s that no one reads anymore.
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A
Right.
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B
That. That is true, but it made a big impression on Richard Wagner for sure. And Grant's going to help us out with the copious amounts of history that play into this entire story and the scene.
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D
It's only about 3,000 years of history across three continents.
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C
Grant, no one knows 14th century Rome like you do. We're in good hands.
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B
Yes, we could mention it is set in 14th century Rome. This character Rienzi, is based on an actual man who lived during that time. Grant's going to fill us in more about that shortly. But it's also important to know that this premieres before, just before the actual middle of the 19th century. It premieres in 1842, Dresden. But it was written. Well, it was begun when Wagner, after he read this book that Kathleen referenced. I think it has the same name. Right. Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes.
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C
Yes, it's just called Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes and is from 1835.
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B
Right. So less than a decade earlier it was written. But he writes the poem that is the basis of the libretto. Wagner, a man who was not only a composer, but he wrote all of his own librettos, which is Unusual for major composers to have done, but Wagner wanted to be in charge of it all. He wrote the poem, which then turns into the libretto while he was stationed in one of his earliest out of town postings in Riga, Latvia today. But he wrote it in 1838. So there's a lot going on in European history at this time. And he's harking back to some of what's going on in earlier history.
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C
And it's an interesting time for Wagner to be writing this. It's an. It was an interesting time when Edward Bulwer Lytton wrote his novel in the 1830s. There's a lot of unrest in England, in Europe as a whole, we're going to be leading up to 1848 is sort of the main big revolution hinge point in the century, which I'm sure Grant can fill us in on some more. But this is. This is not a time of political peace, I would say. And harmony.
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B
Definitely not. And well, let's just be upfront about Wagner himself. Wagner's an interesting man politically, musically we love his music. But he writes a lot of things that are political, some of them are racial. He was a terrible antisemite. And we just need to acknowledge that when we talk about Wagner. He was a staunch German nationalist and nationalism was in the air in Europe in the mid 19th century. I mean, this is the period of time ultimately when Italy becomes unified, when Germany is unified. But it wasn't the case yet. So in the 1840s, in the 1830s, these are forces at work, this nationalism. It is acknowledged that Wagner, however, takes this to some great extremes.
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D
And I think you'll see a lot of the tensions inherent there these days. We have all of our own associations with the idea of nationalism, the way that is politically coded in our day. And it's important for us to remember that to some extent nationalism as an ideology is baseline assumed in our world. There is some extent to which we assume the idea of nation states, of groups of people having a right to self governance, that the state exists on the basis of the will of the people. And nationalism is hard to extract both from its ugliest forms in the cases of things like irredentism, fascism, the very brutal kinds of nationalism and its more benign forms, the idea of democracy as a way that the people can express themselves through government. And you'll see these tensions at work in this opera itself, not just in Wagner's own writing and life where these things issues of tension, but even in the historical basis of this, the character of Rienzi himself, when you look at him, it is easy to see him either as a proto liberal in the sense of believing in people having the right to govern themselves, or as a proto fascist, as this strong man who was trying to say that he was the solution to all problems.
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B
Yeah, well, when he talks about equality before the law, that's kind of a revolutionary thought in his time. But it's something that falls under that benign umbrella, we think.
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D
And, you know, we'll get to all these things as we. As we go through, because there is a lot here in this opera.
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B
There is. And I'm wondering if anyone listening says Rienzi. Wait, wait, I've heard of Rienzi. You might. And if you have, likelier than not. Because be honest, this opera is not often performed where you can go see it in the opera houses, although occasionally. What is performed, however, is the Rienzi Overture. It is a concert piece. It's around 12 minutes long, give or take, and it is often chosen as a Wagner piece to be played by orchestras in symphony halls. So having said that, let's hear a little bit of the Rienzi Overture. I'm going to play to the end of the overture, and in that end, it'll be hard maybe for you to hang on to this in your mind, but the end of the overture is going to feature this Rienzi theme, which was very important in the beginning of the fifth and final act in Rienzi's solemn prayer. But enjoy some of this beautiful orchestral music from the Rienzi overture. This is opera for everyone. And we have just heard a little bit from the ending portion of the overture to Richard Wagner's Rienzi, the Last of the tribunes. We'll get to the whole tribune part later, but our setting is Rome, and we are in the street, and there are gangs of men who are trying to abduct a young woman.
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C
Well, I know what this reminds me of, but am I forbidden from saying the words Romeo and Juliet on a podcast ever again?
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B
Absolutely not. We have. We have laid the groundwork. For those of you who haven't heard it. Kathleen and I have recorded for four separate shows on four separate operas, and there are more than that based on the Romeo and Juliet story. Yes, but carry on. Tell us about this scene.
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C
This is not the only thing it reminds me of, but I do want to say there is a little Romeo and Juliet in here. We've got these two sort of warring factions, warring families who are meeting in a fight in the street.
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B
And, you know, the two factions are the same factions that they are in the Ghibellines and the Guelphs, same factions that are in Romeo and Juliet.
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C
It all ties together. There's also one of the family factions, name is Orsini, and that's a little bit of Twelfth Night trivia for you. The Count Orsini is the name of the hero in that, or Orsino, but, you know, same vibes. So, yes, there's a little bit of Shakespeare here, as one would expect. There's also a little bit of the Rape of Lucretia as well, which is an old Roman story that I will kick to Grant to give us a little information on. But we're firmly in this a half ancient, half Shakespearean setting, I would say.
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B
Right?
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D
Yeah. And without getting too much into the Rape of Lucretia, it is a important story in the history of Rome and the vision that Rome had of itself as opposing tyrannical rulers, that she is assaulted by the prince, and it is her predicament and her suicide that lead to the revolt against the monarchy that solidifies Rome's republican identity, opposed to monarchs and tyrants of all kinds. And the idea of her as someone who is virtuous and who should be protected in a just society is something that echoes through the idea of ancient Rome.
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B
As long as we're speaking about ancient Rome, could we just get a baseline here on Rome? Because many people, when they think of ancient Rome, think of the expansive Roman Empire. But there's some very important history prior to it becoming an empire.
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D
Yeah. I mean, at first, Rome is just one of many city states with a local base of power. And indeed, in this play, you're getting a huge sweep of Roman history. There are these references to the times before Rome became a regional power. There are references to when Rome was a regional power as a republic that is without a monarch. There are references to the times of the emperors. And as the empire split and fell and was left in these weird successor kingdoms, the legacy of Rome was seized upon by many different people. And at the time that this opera is written and first performed, those legacies are being grasped once again with the development of nationalism. The idea of Italy as a country, rather than simply being a geographic region that happens to have a lot of these little independent countries all around it, all of that ties together. And it ties together kind of remarkably and uniquely in the historical person of Rienzi, who was this medieval figure who looked back very distinctly and clearly to the ancient world as his inspiration for what he wanted to see. In the world and then became kind of an obscure figure to an extent, but became a very important figure once again in the 19th century. As you see the rise of nationalism, the movement to reunify Italy, he gets looked back on and re evaluated historically as a tremendously important person. And statues are put up of him. And one of the first things they do when they do finally reunify Italy, is they put up a big square in the middle of Rome named after the guy.
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E
Fascinating.
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C
It's very interesting because you feel like there's really a thread that we can follow all the way back. So we sort of are here now talking about it in the year of our Lord 2025. But, you know, we follow this thread back to the opera in the 1840s and the novel in the 30s, which is looking back to the 14th century, which is then in turn looking back to the glories of ancient Rome and empire and then even pre empire. So I think Wagner does a fantastic job just to set things off. And we will, I promise, talk about what's actually happening.
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B
We will, we will.
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E
But the one thing I just wanted.
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B
To highlight here is in Rome's earliest, earliest foundation, they were vehemently, when they were the republic, founding of the republic, vehemently anti king because they had overthrown.
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E
A king in their system. And that's how they get the Senate set up in the first place, is that they are determined that there will be representation for the people. You can talk about how exclusive that representation was, and it was very exclusive, but still it was not a king, it was not a strong man.
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D
And even the emperors, it was quite late and, you know, past the time of the unified empire. In the Eastern Roman Empire, when the emperors actually started being referred to as kings. The emperor was not known as a king throughout the time that we think of as being the High Roman Empire citizen. Yeah, he's. There's this pretense that even though he has not only kingly power, but actually greatly beyond what most kings experienced back in those times, that he's a citizen like anybody else who just, you know, happens to be linked to the deities of Rome.
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C
And so when we, when we open here, this is all sort of brewing in the background. There's this idea of repeating history and how do we not repeat history? How do we not fall into same traps that history has laid for us before? And this is why I mention Lucretia, because this opens with the patricians, the nobility, one might say, taking advantage of a young woman and trying to kidnap her, trying to assault her. So we are already seeing here this woman who is a figure of purity, who's this symbol of everything that could be good about Rome being taken advantage of or trying to be taken advantage of by those who are in power and are using that power for ill instead of for good. Yeah.
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B
And then we have this other group.
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E
Of men, similar size, and you think, oh, wow, they're going to rescue her.
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B
But they don't.
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D
No, they see her as a prize to be batted around. And it's notable that they refer to her being a plebeian, and she refers to them as being barbarians. And that's what's at stake here, Right. Is that on the one hand, you've got these people who think of the world as divided into class, the nobility on the one side and the poor people on the other side, and the nobility are to some extent above the law. And from Irene's standpoint, the difference is between barbarism and its opposite, imagined here as a sort of civilized morality.
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B
Right. And by the way, these two groups.
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E
Of men, these are the Orsini and the Colonna, these are these two warring groups, these are the nobles representing these powerful factions in Rome at this time. But ultimately, someone does come to Irene's rescue. And Irene. Did we mention Irene is the sister of our title character, Rienzi?
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C
I don't think we have yet.
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E
Just to know. Yes, it's good to know where she fits in in the story of all these characters.
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C
There's a reason why we start with Irene. She is an important figure for a lot of different reasons. But, yes, part of that is that she is so directly tied to Rienz. I think it's interesting that she's a sister and not a lover or, you know, wife or anything like that, that there is this sister bond, which I think in a lot of ways hearkens back to things like the story of Antigone, et cetera, which we'll once again talk about all of that. But, yes, Irene is at the mercy of these many forces that are trying to take her. This is a metaphor, but also literal.
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D
And it's significant here that her name is Irene. Irene comes from the Greek word meaning peace. And again and again throughout this opera, you'll hear peace and peace talked about sometimes as a deity by the same name. She is the representation of peace society as it should be. And they are abusing her in a literal sense as a person, but they're abusing the idea of a civilized society as a whole.
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B
And we could also point Out. She's the only female character in this entire opera. Well, not the only female voice, because we do have a trouser role coming up, but she's the only female character in this entire show.
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C
So Irene is. Someone does come to her rescue, maybe sort of like a half rescue. He at least jumps in and tries to do his best. That is Adriano, who says that she is under his protection. He is the son of Stefano Colonna, who is the head of the Colonna family faction. And here we're once again feeling a little Romeo and Juliet. To me, it's very, you know, two houses, both alike in dignity. The Colonnas are. And I think this is important to keep an idea of, like, who is considered patrician and who is considered plebeian. So she is considered plebeian. She is of the people, and the colonas are patrician. So this is a potential lover for Irene, who is rescuing her, who is of the nobility, rescuing a sort of common girl. That in. It's sort of this noblesse oblige kind of idea that, like, that is a proper use of your power to rescue those who are less fortunate, who are weaker.
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D
The damsel in distress.
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C
Yes, the damsel in distress, exactly. Whereas the Osini family is being their villainous selves and doing the opposite. They're misusing their power. So this is a microcosm of a larger theme. We will see which is the misuse of power or the proper use of power throughout this opera.
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B
But Adriano is not entirely successful with the rescue record.
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C
He does his best. Yes. They fight, and then we have this other voice come in, the voice of the Church, a cardinal, Cardinal Raimondo, who attempts to pacify, to use that, our peace metaphor, this fight. And he calls upon them to honor the name of the Church. This also is maybe not quite as successful as he would expect it to be, but he's once again, everybody's trying. Trying their best.
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D
Yeah. There's this outbreak of disorder, violence, barbarism in the moral sense. And we see successive attempts to arrest it. And the first thing that seems like it'll be an attempt is this other group of nobles show up. They don't want to do it. There's no. The rivalry will not keep it in check. The next thing is we have this chivalrous young knight, and he goes and he says, I am going to rescue her. And his father, the leader of that faction, is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, go rescue her. So she's yours now. Right? Because he still thinks of the whole thing. In terms of abduction. And then the next voice that comes in is the voice of the church saying, guys, calm it down. Like, you guys are. You guys are bad news. And then they're like, get lost in our translation's words, you holy red skirt. Which is a bizarre but hilarious way to talk about a cardinal.
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B
Yeah. And then ultimately, at the end of the clip, we're about to play where you're going to hear all these voices. Rienzi himself, the man enters, and there is gravitas in his voice.
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C
And just briefly, before we hear him, I do think it's important to understand what role he plays here, because we've. We've made this a dichotomy, Right. There's plebeians and patricians. He's kind of is neither of those things, which is what gives him that power. He is a. And grant, correct me if this is not the right way to say this, but he's sort of like a representative of the plebeians in a way. He has power. He is ennobled. But he is also one of them.
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B
Almost Napoleonic.
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D
Yes. And there are definitely Napoleon vibes going on here, but I think that's absolutely right. And that's why he's referred to as the last tribune. The position of tribune was the position in the Roman republic of someone whose job it was to represent the plebeians. The idea of the veto power comes from this, that the patricians were in charge. They basically had to do what they were doing. But there were these people, the tribunes, whose job it was to look after the interests of the least fortunate. And if the nobility tried to run roughshod over them, they had the right to say, I object and call a stop to things.
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B
So the piece that I'm going to play right now, right from the early part of Act 1, is from when Adriano shows up and all the other attempted rescues, until Rienzi, to help you with the listening here, because, of course, this is in German, Adriano is the trouser role, a soprano playing the role of this young nobleman. So the soprano that you hear is not going to be Irene. It is Adriano. And then you'll hear some. You'll hear some other voices, some of the leaders of these two family factions. The bass that you hear coming in and sounding a little different from the rest, that's the cardinal. Rienzi himself is a tenor. So I think that'll help a little bit with the listening. But please, this is the scene. We. We just describ. That authoritative voice Was Rienzi himself coming to calm the scene down? First he says, be silent. And he chastises them. Have you forgotten what you swore to me? You need to respect the church. And that is a big part of what Rienzi will be saying throughout this. He respects the authority of the church. It might not be mutual as it goes along, but that's where we are. And then he takes these two groups of nobles, these fighting groups of nobles to task. You've murdered our brothers. You've dishonored our sisters. And in fact, Rienzi's own young brother was killed by a member of the Colonna family.
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D
And he mentions that the papacy had been driven from Rome. Now, historiographically, we can argue about what the push and pull there was, but in the context of what Rienzi is saying, the city has descended into chaos, and even the church cannot successfully exist safely here.
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B
And that is the whole point, that it's just mobs ruling and taking advantage of those that they can take advantage of. I mean, that's the sense that we need to take with us of what a bad shape Roan was in at this point.
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C
Yeah. And even to the point where. And I find this just so interesting, like, it's not like they try to take Irene on the street or something. They climb up to her open window to take her out of her house. That it's not even safe to be in one's own house at this point. That is how destabilized things are. And there's just a true. As most of these stories start, there's something rotten, and it is the entire nobility with maybe, maybe Adriano is an.
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B
Exception, but he's an interesting character. We'll talk about him. But I want to also note that we have another large group enter the stage. There's lots of choral work in this, which I enjoy. There's so much wonderful choral work in this opera. By the way, Richard Wagner did call this work an opera. It was early enough in his career that he hasn't turned yet to calling it music dramas because he's trying to write it for really a European wide appeal. So he's still calling things operas. It's shortly thereafter he switches to music dramas to make the break to say he's doing something different from what the other opera composers are doing. Okay. The people are this new group that have come onto the stage in all this hubbub. And the people, the mass of people, never differentiated as individuals. They support Rienzi, they are singing Long live Rienzi. And they clearly make an impact on everyone observing about the power that this leader has.
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C
So we have a lot of people on stage, and there's a lot of bickering going on. I'd say that the fight has moved from swords to words at this point, but not even in quite a serious way. The nobility disdain what Rienzi has said and kind of make fun of him for being such a good speaker, but say that's all he is.
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D
And yet they have to yield to some extent. His power over the people is such that despite their disdain for him and their disdain for the church and their disdain for all the rest of it, they fear him. They can't go up against him toe to toe. Not at this point.
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C
Yeah. And they are the ones that quit the stage. First the nobility all leave, and then we have left Rienzi and the cardinal. So the representative of the church, the people and Rienzi are left. And here we have a moment where Ramsay's power is really solidified. Everyone on this stage agrees with him. He now has the support of the church, and we'll hear explicitly the cardinal G. Give him the support. And we get to hear maybe the first stump speech from Ramsay. What's Randsey's platform? And what kind of a leader is he going to be? And this is the first time that we get to hear that voice from him.
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A
Sam. Lord ra. Sam.
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B
Everyone except the nobility who have exited the stage already are supporting Rienzi because Rienzi is promising to bring peace, to bring calm, to bring justice and laws to the people. But we get a little switch from having all of these large groups of people on the stage. We have something a little more intimate. We have Rienzi and Irene and Adriano on the scene. And Rienzi wants to find out, is his sister okay.
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D
And to his astonishment, he finds out that the person who helped protect her was Adriano a. Colonna, the scion of the family that took away Rienzi's brother by murdering him.
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E
Yes.
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B
And so they have to work that out, those two men, very quickly.
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C
Yes. And Rienzi, this is an interesting little insight into his character. I think he is surprised, but he doesn't. He doesn't dwell on it too much. He accepts Adriano as an ally because I think he sees that that is something that would be politically advantageous to him. He says, can I call you friend? He's not, like, looking for revenge. He's not looking to dress Adriano down for being a bad Roman, other than just to say, are you going to join me. And when Adriano says yes, largely, he is happy to accept that. Of course, Adriano is thinking a little bit more with his heart, his romantic heart, than perhaps his noble head. He is looking at Irene and seeing how beautiful she is and how lovely it is to have tried to rescue a damsel in distress. But whatever the reason, Adriano is starting to see things Rienzi's way.
- [37:42]
D
I think it's a really interesting thing because they do come from such different worlds that Rienzi is willing to set aside Adriano's family because in the end of the day, he doesn't care. In the end of the day, the families are a problem because they are an enemy of his idea of the well ordered society.
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B
But it's Adriano's actions as an individual, it's his behavior that Rienzi cares about.
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D
Yeah. That he acts as a good citizen.
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B
That's right.
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D
And so his family affiliation is less important. And yet at the same time, to an extent, Adriano is still in this old feudal knightly mindset. He's not saying he's on Ranzi's side because he wants to see the society reformed. He's saying it because he's in love with the damsel. And that's what knights do, is they fall in love with damsels and they swear oaths for their protection and make alliances to try and see that done. And as we may see later, he is not setting aside his family in the way that Rienzi might hope at this time.
- [38:43]
B
No, he's not. But it's very interesting because you get just a little line in here that Wagner has written for Adriano. I see you as mighty, but what do you want to use your might for? Well, I want Rome to be great and free. I want to awaken it from its sleep that's harking back to its past glory. And everyone you see in the dust, I will make a free citizen of Rome, that great mass of the populace. He wants them to be free citizens, harking back to the idealization of ancient Rome. And so these three characters on the stage, Adriano, a soprano in a trouser roll, Irene, a soprano, our only female character. And Rienzi have this wonderful piece that they sing together, affirming these ideas.
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A
Ra. Rain.
- [40:47]
C
All right, so we have heard this trio, and now we're going to to give our lovers the spotlight so they can well discover that they're in love with each other. I want to just pause very briefly here to say that one of the main differences between the source material, which is a novel by Edward Bulwer Lytton, who is a very well read author of that time period of the mid 19th century, early and mid 19th century, it's much more of a historical romance. And the romance between these two characters is much more central than it is in this, what Wagner was interested in. I'd say that the closest thing to in our modern day would be Les Miserables, the stage play. It's very similar to that where you have this love story that's a small but sort of beating heart part of it. But obviously there's much larger things going on and sometimes that love story can get a little washed out by the giant choral scenes. This is very similar, I think, to what's happening with our two lovers here. So we have. These two lovers have their moment though here where they. They fall in love by talking about what they want in their political ideal version of Rome, which is adorable, honestly. Irene is her brother's sister, 100%. She is as committed to his cause as he is. And anyone who loves her has to kind of come through that. And I think Adriano, whether that was his guiding star before, it certainly is now. And so he professes his love for her through the lens of. Of helping her build this new Rome together.
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B
And once they've had a chance to talk all this through, we hear the trumpets sounding, the outside world is going to appear once more and the people.
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D
Will show up yet again as an undifferentiated Mass.
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B
Yes, of course, that's who they are.
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C
We get the Orsini, we get the Colonna troops, we get. Everybody is back. And we have a large group coming onto the stage again. I cannot even imagine what this looked like staged. So many people. But before we have this sort of huge ending scene with everybody on the stage and singing like mad, we have this beautiful piece called the Lateran Choir.
- [43:04]
B
When I was watching this opera online, I found this a charming piece. I do love a good choral piece. And this is that Wagner's masterful at this. Even at this early stage in his career, they are hopeful about the good things that are going to come to Rome as a result of Rienzi asserting himself and leading the people.
- [43:26]
C
Yes. And so this is the church calling people to see the potential of what could be. So once again, we know that the Church supports Rienzi and the Lateran is a portion of Rome that's dedicated to holy buildings. And this is a moment almost. It's a moment of prayer. Before we get the military might of everyone, like I said, singing like mad at the end of the stage. And this beautiful choir ushers in the calm before the storm.
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A
Ram. Sam.
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B
We're listening to the last tribune of Rome by Richard Wagner here on Opera for everyone. And we're not quite, but almost through the end of the first act of this five act opera. I will tell you, it's the longest act. We've given you a bunch of history and background and it does speed up as the opera goes on. Although I also will note that this was a very long opera when it was first premiered and Wagner himself was willing to cut it down so it could be played more places. Its reception was very popular. People loved this show. The end of Act 1. Here, Rienzi will enter and talk about strutting. He is very pleased with himself. He loves what he's doing and he's.
- [45:57]
E
Doing it for the right reasons.
- [45:58]
B
And the people are showering him with adulation.
- [46:01]
D
For a moment, at this moment, it seems like all will be right.
- [46:06]
A
Yeah.
- [46:06]
D
It seems that the people are united behind one who is going to lead them into a glorious future. It seems that the church is united behind this goal. And it looks like there is a clear path forward to the future. And that's where the opera ends and everybody goes home happy.
- [46:24]
B
No, no, no, no, no, no.
- [46:26]
C
Unless perhaps the idea of someone being proclaimed king by a mob raises any red flags for you. It does for me, just a little bit. Those don't tend to work out quite as well as they seem in the moment. Everything you said, Grant, is correct for the most part. But to me, this is a little dark foreshadowing here.
- [46:50]
D
Absolutely.
- [46:51]
B
But what's interesting here is Rienzi knows it's a red flag to be proclaimed king. And when they want to proclaim him king, he says, no, no, you must.
- [47:01]
E
Pledge your loyalty to the church.
- [47:03]
B
The church shall rule here and the.
- [47:05]
E
Senate will give its laws that they're.
- [47:08]
D
Going to re establish the old republican institutions and he's going to take the place of being a tribune. But they're gonna try and rebuild some version of Rome as it was, or perhaps as it should have been. That's the idea. But of course, the vision of the popular figurehead nearly getting crowned and refusing the crown should make us think back to the way that this happened in ancient Rome.
- [47:34]
B
Julius Caesar.
- [47:35]
D
Anyone with Julius Caesar? Things didn't end up great for that guy, or frankly for Rome as a result of all that.
- [47:42]
C
Yes. Or another figure we might think about, we've mentioned before is Napoleon Crowning himself, taking the crown out of the hands of the church. There is a lot of foreshadowing going on here, I think, in a couple different ways. I mean, for one, there's this idea that when the people are in distress, what they want is the strong man. They don't want democracy. They want a king. That's the first thing they call for. So that's already. There's something wrong there. And the second being this idea that you could go back and rebuild what was there before. We all know you can never go back. And we also know that Rome fell. So trying to build again a version of the thing that failed. There's a sense of impending doom there. But then finally, the idea that what we know of Rienzi is very limited at this point, and I'm sure is very limited. What the people know of him, too. Just as they are a sort of nameless mass to him, he's just a name, too, to them. Can Rienzi handle being offered this power? Is the other question. When you offer a man ultimate power and give him all of his laurels, does he resist forever? I think is another question we should ask ourselves. So we end the act very hopeful. Lots of good things coming up.
- [48:57]
B
Exactly.
- [48:58]
E
We end this first act very much up.
- [49:01]
B
We're up. We're happy, we're hopeful. We see great things ahead. And we begin Act 2 in a.
- [49:08]
E
Similar place, but maybe even better, because.
- [49:11]
B
We have these messengers of peace who.
- [49:13]
E
Come in, and they have spread the word. They're spreading the message that Rienzi is.
- [49:19]
B
Bringing to the people.
- [49:20]
D
But not everybody is happy with this state of affairs. Despite all the jubilation, there are some malcontents.
- [49:28]
C
Yes, well, in order for things to change, Someone has to be punished and some power has to be taken away. So the nobility is not going to take this laying down, one would say.
- [49:37]
E
Doing what kings historically have done.
- [49:41]
B
By limiting the power of the nobility. By having a power that's greater than.
- [49:46]
E
The nobility, who are constantly bickering amongst each other.
- [49:49]
B
No.
- [49:51]
C
So the nobility we've met before, the colonas and the orsini and the rest of the nobility, they are all entering, and they're. At first, they greet him, greet Rienzi, as if they are, oh, we think you're awesome. And we totally agree with all this. Let's feast together.
- [50:08]
D
Accept the greeting of peace, they say.
- [50:12]
C
But in their hearts hide something darker. So as soon as they're alone, the orsinis and the colonos, who, by the way, are rivals, but they have joined Together, because they have a common enemy here, which is always a bad idea. They are plotting to see what they can possibly do to remove Rienzi from power. But Adriano, who is Kelowna's son, overhears.
- [50:33]
D
This conversation and says, I can't believe you guys are going to do something like this. Which is funny, right? Because he's grown up in this world, he knows this world, but he's had this idealistic change of heart recently, and he thinks maybe there's a better way. And he's. And he's accused of being influenced by this master trickster, the demagogue, and disloyal.
- [50:58]
B
To his family, which is core to their value system.
- [51:01]
C
Yeah, it's so interesting. Colonna actually says to him, says, who are you? Are you my son or are you a traitor? And Adriano has this beautiful response. He says, I'm the son of a knightly father who loved honor until now, until his old age, who was a stranger to all boyish deeds and was the enemy of Orsini and his gang. He says, I know who you are, and this isn't who you are. And Kelowna just can't hear that right now, which is a real tragedy. There's sort of a mini tragedy going on here of son against father, where Adriano still believes in honor and goodness and knows the Orsinis are evil, but his father can't see that anymore.
- [51:41]
D
Yeah, he's someone who has been drinking the noble, chivalric Kool Aid his entire life, and all of a sudden realizes he's the only one not in on the joke, that it's not about honor, it's about power.
- [51:55]
C
So Adriano pleads for Colonna, his father, to spare Rienzi. They are contemplating, as you would imagine, an assassination, and Adriano is unsuccessful. Colonna pushes him away and says, basically, you're not my son anymore, I curse you. And then Adriano is thus outside of that noble world and leaves this scene unmoored, has no family of his own anymore. Really?
- [52:22]
B
Yes. And Adriano confesses to us, those of us who are listening to his thoughts on stage, I will be a traitor then, because I believe in Irene's brother, Rienzle. Let him live. So you realize that he's made a momentous decision here to let Rienzi know what's up.
- [52:43]
D
And it's an intriguing thing, right? Because from our modern standpoint, you hear the word traitor and you think, or assume traitor to nation. That's our use of the word traitor refers to treachery, to a nation. But here he's choosing to be loyal to his nation as he understands it, but to betray his family, which in his nobility inflected world is the default thing to which you have loyalty.
- [53:10]
B
Now, of course, it's complicated. And he even acknowledges it's complicated. After having that strong decision, he's like, but what about, about my father? What if he's caught? He'll be executed. Save me from madness. Save me for madness. So he is a conflicted young man.
- [53:28]
C
So as we often do, we switch from the quiet internal struggles to a giant coral scene.
- [53:35]
A
Yeah.
- [53:35]
C
Where we go from the individual to the people. The people come in, they are celebrating still. They're very happy. They've solved all their problems. And so they have much to celebrate. And Rienzi is with them. He greets, greets them. There's this invocation of peace. This is a festival of peace. And the different ambassadors approach Rienzi, all to pledge their loyalty to this new vision. So, for instance, you have the ambassador of Milan offering health and eternal prosperity, the ambassador of Lombardy coming and offering the protection of Lombardy, of Naples, Bohemia, Bavaria, all of these different regions of proto Europe at this time pledging their support for Rienzi, which is a great sign, honestly, because if it's just one man against all the nobles, it's a little scary. But he seems to have a lot of real support behind him.
- [54:27]
D
And this is historical. In fact, the historical Rienzi did get a surprising number of big deal noble and indeed royal houses lined up behind his vision. There were people who started to recognize this as the beginning of a new kind of Rome.
- [54:46]
B
Yes. And in this telling, the words that Wagner has written has Rienzi saying, yes, God, who created wonders through me, demands that we not stand still now. So he sees himself channeling God's powers and God's will.
- [56:24]
A
Jesus. Sat I.
- [58:30]
B
You're listening to Opera for Everyone, a radio show and podcast that makes opera understandable, accessible and enjoyable for everyone. I'm your host, Pat Wright, joined by Kathleen and Grant.
- [58:42]
D
Opera for Everyone airs Sundays from 9 to 11am Mountain Time on 89.1 Khol in beautiful Jackson, Wyoming.
- [58:50]
C
If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the Opera for Everyone podcast on itunes or wherever you get your podcasts where you can find a rich trove of past episodes.
- [59:00]
B
Stay with us. The second half of today's show is coming right up. Welcome back to the second half of Opera for Everyone. Today we are doing discussing an opera from early in the career of Richard Wagner. The opera is Rienzi the last of the tribunes, joining me today to help out with this monumentally grand opera. I have Kathleen Vanderwilt.
- [59:45]
C
Lovely to be here.
- [59:46]
B
And Grant.
- [59:48]
D
Glad to be here. Okay, so I've got one question.
- [59:51]
B
What's that question?
- [59:52]
D
My question is, if I wanted a extremely intellectually sophisticated take on what in the world is going on with Love island, where would I find that?
- [60:03]
C
Grant, I'm so glad you asked because Love island was very much on my mind this summer, and I think I wrote somewhere in the vicinity of 2,000 words on the topic. So if you're looking for that, you could check out my substack, constructive Criticism. If you just Google constructive criticism substack, it should come up. I think it's the only one I haven't posted on there in a while. But, you know, the creative juices are flowing. Grant, I think there's going to be some more stuff very soon.
- [60:29]
B
I love constructive criticism. It does help me sift through all the things there, because you don't just do television shows. You talk about movies and books, and you do all this culture and all this literature and all this watching of works. However, before we get back to our story, Rienzi, we need to say thank you to the people involved in creating the CD that we've been listening to for our excerpt.
- [60:51]
A
Thank you.
- [60:51]
B
This was a recording made in 1976 by the Dresden State Opera with the Dresden State Opera Chorus and the Leipzig Radio Choir. I told you there were a lot of choirs in this under the baton of Heinrich Holreiser.
- [61:07]
C
Our Rienzi is sung by Renee Kolo. Iren is sung by Siv Wendberg. Adriana Colonna, the trousers role, is sung by Janice Martin Orsini, by Theo Adam Baroncelli, who we actually have not talked about, but I promise we will, is sung by Peter Schreier Colonna by Nikolaus Hillebrand and Raimondo, the church representative. The Cardinal is sung by Siegfried Vogel.
- [61:35]
B
Thank you, one and all, for this, this beautiful music that we're able to listen to. And Grant, you're up.
- [61:42]
D
Okay. So once upon a time in fair Roma, where we lay our scene, there are these two houses, and they're both alike in dignity, which is to say they've got a lot of nominal dignity, but they're kind of undignified when you really get down to brass tacks and they decide it would be fun to go abduct this plebeian chick, because why not? But one of them is like, hey, that's wrong, isn't It. And the others are like, yeah, it is. And then the pope sends his dude, and the pope's dude's like, hey, guys, you want to quit it? And they're like, nah. Next thing you know, this charming chap Rienzi, shows up, and he calms the crowd, and he gets everybody on his side, and he's like, okay, guys, we're gonna cut it here for a lot of reasons, including that this is my sister. And he sends them all away. And he becomes very popular with everybody, including the people, including the church, not so much the nobles. They still hate his guts. And he is offered the kingship of Rome. And he says, I've read my Roman history. That's not a thing you're supposed to say yes to. So I'm not gonna be king. How about you just call me tribune? And they're like, isn't that a kind of newspaper? And they're like, yeah, sure. And so he decides that he's going to be the advocate for the poor and the historically disenfranchised, and he's going to build up a new ideal republic. And everything is going to be hunky dory on the basis of his strong personality and everyone giving him absolute control over everything. In the meantime, there are all those nobles who he's angered who are plotting against him. One of them, that young idealist who's now found himself desperately in love with that maiden who was almost abducted, who happens to be Rienzi's sister, decides to join up and say that he's going to be on Rienzi's team and is called a traitor for it. And then there's a whole bunch of dignitaries from surrounding areas who show up and say, hey, Rienzi, we're here. You're in charge. And for reasons having nothing to do with the fact that you're in charge now, we want to tell you how great you are. And, yeah, and the nobles are like, hey, we got to kill this guy. The people said he should be king, and he said no. And we've read our Roman history, and we know that we're supposed to do is just stab the guy. A whole bunch.
- [63:55]
B
They are planning that.
- [63:56]
E
Well, I should just mention very briefly.
- [63:59]
B
Here, at this point, what we're not.
- [64:01]
E
Going to talk about is this pantomime or this ballet that takes takes place.
- [64:05]
B
It's lengthy.
- [64:06]
E
It was de rigueur in Paris at the time, which, in fact, was the location where he was doing a lot of this writing. Paris did not work out for Richard Wagner in his early career, Wagner had a lot of trouble finding acceptance, finding.
- [64:23]
B
What he believed he was due in.
- [64:25]
E
Terms of the stage productions, for the.
- [64:28]
B
Music that he was writing.
- [64:29]
E
He lived a lavish lifestyle which got him in debt and meant that he.
- [64:34]
B
Had to move around a lot. One of those moves took him on.
- [64:38]
E
A perilous sea voyage to London. He eventually makes it to Paris, by.
- [64:43]
B
The way, when he was in London.
- [64:44]
E
He tried very hard to meet with Bulward Lytton because he loved the story.
- [64:48]
B
And was in the process of preparing the opera for it.
- [64:52]
E
But Berwyd Lytton was, quote, unquote, out of town and unavailable. Nevertheless, he proceeds with this work.
- [64:59]
B
Wagner and his wife spend. His first wife spend two and a half years in Paris.
- [65:04]
E
Very unsuccessful, very disappointing for Wagner. The one high point was he met with Giacomo Meyerbeer. Meyerbeer is not a familiar name to most of us these days, but he was probably the most produced opera composer in the 19th century, known particularly for his work in Paris. He's originally German. He takes on a bit of an Italian name, Giacomo, but he is the toast of Paris. He is Mr. Grand Opera. He is the man for these huge spectacles, and that's the kind of opera that Rienzi is. So Wagner's meeting with Meyerbeer was brief.
- [65:43]
B
It was on his way to Paris. He's a fellow German.
- [65:46]
E
He sees some potential in Wagner. I don't get a sense that he did a whole lot for Wagner, but it didn't hurt. And he may have been actually instrumental in helping to get the. The first connection with Dresden, where this opera premieres.
- [66:00]
B
Der Fliegender Hollander premieres, which is the one that follows, and then even Tannhauser in Dresden. And I want to share just one brief quip about Meyerbeer, sort of about Meyerbeer, really more about Wagner. When Hans von Bulow, who was. Oh, there's so much story there with Hans von Bulo. His. His wife is the woman who becomes Wagner's second wife. But that doesn't matter. He was a very gifted pianist and a very gifted conductor and he conducts a lot of Wagner's operas. Yeah, that's a real soap opera drama story there, but not for today. But I love at one point when Hans von Bulow says, yes, Rienzi, that was Meyerbeer's best opera.
- [66:44]
A
Whoa.
- [66:45]
B
Yeah.
- [66:46]
C
What a sick burn.
- [66:50]
B
It was.
- [66:51]
A
It was.
- [66:52]
B
So anyway, so part of the grandness that even Wagner was willing to cut for later productions was this huge set of dances and pageantry, celebrating a lot of the ancient glory of Rome.
- [67:05]
C
And notably the ballet that is the story of the rape of Lucretia. Just to bring everything full circle as well.
- [67:12]
B
That's right.
- [67:13]
D
With a prominent role for the goddess of peace, Irene.
- [67:17]
C
So one plot point that we do need to mention is that at the conclusion of the ballet, right as they're ending, Orsini makes his attempt on Rienzi's life. So he uses the. Whatever's going on on stage, if there's not a ballet, something else is distracting Rienzi. And Orsini gets very close to him and attempts to stab him in the chest. In fact, actually does stab him in the chest.
- [67:40]
A
Yes.
- [67:40]
C
And Adriano sees this and has been watching and tries to intervene, but is unsuccessful. Which is. Is Adriano in a. In a nutshell. Right there. He's literally right there. And he tries, but he does not succeed. However, Rienzi is not a stupid man, and he has been wearing chain mail. And so he basically has a bulletproof vest on, medieval style, and is not hurt by the stab. This, of course, tips the. The noble's hand. Everyone sees that this has happened, and they are immediately arrested. And the people rise up to protect Rienzi.
- [68:17]
B
Right, because Rienzi was tipped off by Colonna's son.
- [68:21]
C
Exactly. So Adrianna's good for something every once in a while.
- [68:25]
B
What is going to be the punishment for attempted assassination? We're told the law says it's death. They must be executed.
- [68:34]
C
Yes, well, that's what it probably should be.
- [68:36]
B
And Rienzi's like, well, I'm all about the law. That's what the Romans believed in. That's how you make sure things are fair. You follow the law.
- [68:43]
D
There's this interesting dialogue here between Adriano and Rienzi, where Adriano's like, hey, it's my dad you're trying to kill. And Rienzi tries to appeal to him. He says, you're a Roman, not the traitor's son. He's saying, your identity is not based in your family, it's based in your citizenship. But Adriano's only partly taken along by this whole thing in the first place. And he still wants his father to be protected, in spite of the fact that he is quite disillusioned with his dad.
- [69:14]
A
Yeah.
- [69:14]
C
And this will be his push and pull throughout the opera. One thing I think is important for us, and I said this when we thanked all of the people in this production, we have not actually mentioned who some of these people are that are representing the people. They are mostly a Mass, but there is a character whose name is Baroncelli that is important to talk about and then another one called Cecco, and Baroncelli and Cecco will become important later on. So I think we should very briefly mention that they are not tribunes, but they are also sort of representatives of the populace, of the plebeians and up.
- [69:47]
B
To this point strong supporters of Rienzi.
- [69:50]
C
Yes, they are Rienzi's closest supporters from the sort of vox populi. They are both very strongly encouraging Rienzi to carry out the death sentence for these nobles and calling for that death by the axe.
- [70:06]
D
Checo calls and Irene jumps in to bolster Adriano. And of course we know she has different motives. Adriano is just kind of looking to protect his family, but Irene is trying to see something a little bit different. She's trying to see her way. She's this idealized vision of the good society and she's trying to say maybe we don't have to just have this be violence, begetting violence between the two of them. Adriano and Irene start to sway Rienzi.
- [70:35]
C
Yes. And ultimately, although Checo and Baron Shelli try very hard to sway Ranzi to their side, you have them on one side and then you have Irene and Adriano on the other side, pulling his nature back and forth. And Rienzi does decide he's going to be merciful and he's going to pardon them. Basically he believes that if you can have mercy and you can pardon these people, that their loyalty will be renewed to him and they will repent, which is. Is very Christian, I would say too, and fits with the fact that he is also in league with the church here. But maybe short sighted is a good way to put it. Political move, I think.
- [71:17]
E
Yeah, it's. It's definitely risky. I mean, there are times when showing mercy, and even Machiavelli says this in his work. There are times when showing mercy binds.
- [71:26]
B
The loyalty to you quite tightly. However, right here at the end of.
- [71:30]
E
Act 2, we have a big, big.
- [71:32]
B
Finish, with the significant exception of these two friends of Rienzi's, Baroncelli and Cecco, who see the danger.
- [71:41]
E
They are all praising the tribune, praising Rienzi for his mercy, for his desire to bring the people all together, to.
- [71:51]
B
Bring all the people on the side of peace and a better Rome.
- [71:56]
D
And it's interesting because it is a political misplay, as we'll come to see. There are no spoilers in opera and yet it is almost necessary to his vision. Yeah, his vision of this World involves them all being on the same side, and that can't be achieved through raw violence. And so what's wrong here is not necessarily that he's made a mistake. What's doomed here is his political vision itself.
- [72:23]
C
Yeah, he's a man out of his own time, because this doesn't work in 14th century Italy, maybe. This works in 18th century Europe, maybe.
- [72:34]
D
And at the time of the opera being written, it's very much an open question. This is before the big movements have started to make it look realistic.
- [72:41]
C
And there's this ideal here that you can see the romantic authorship of Lord Lytton coming through here. I think, too, there's this vision of what the world could be. What kind of ideal government could we imagine? What kind of thing could mercy and peace give us if we gave it a chance? But the political reality is, is just that there's nothing about that time that is ready for that. It's too modern and ideal to be honest, and maybe still too moder.
- [74:12]
A
Ram. Sam.
- [75:23]
B
We ended Act 2 on a very hopeful note. Rienzi has shown mercy now it hasn't been and total freedom that he's granted to these captives who tried to assassinate him. But they will not be executed. Things are getting a little more difficult in the beginning of Act 3 because the first thing we hear is the people, the populace, that undifferentiated mass saying, oh, have you heard? The nobles, they escaped. They fled. Trouble is brewing.
- [75:54]
C
Yeah. I mean, maybe this is his vision of peace. And all that fun stuff could have worked if there had been a little bit more logistics, planning behind all of this. But the guard set upon them did not appear to be quite strong enough. And not only that, but they have immediately they have their own standing armies, these nobles. That's part of what's important about this time period is that to be an aristocrat is not like being a duke in Bridgerton. You have your own house army that you can call upon. And so they are quite a political threat and quite a physical threat to this new republic idea. And so they are massed outside the city, and the people are terrified. And when the people are terrified, they are going to call for strength, not peace, not mercy. And so we're back to where we were at the beginning, honestly, Maybe worse.
- [76:46]
B
That's right. And as the people are pleading for help from Rienzi, they're strong men. I just love it when he shows up here and he's ready to do battle with the nobles, because this is when we get one of those wonderful Things we love in opera. The man comes in on horseback, in full armor or something approximating that, depending on the costume designer's desires. So he is in this commanding position. He's literally taller than everyone else, sitting on horseback.
- [77:17]
C
One of the things I think is interesting here is Rienzi comes in fiery, as we said, he's ready for battle, he's on horseback, he's got his armor on. But the thing the people say to him is, if you had executed them, that would have been clean. But now we have to do the same thing. But it's our blood that has to pay for it, because some of us are going to die. In fact, a lot of people are going to die. So you get this interesting moment where Grant, you mentioned before, it's like his ideals are correct in many ways and they're morally correct, but they are going to be at the cost of innocent lives. And so the question is, is it worth it to stick to your ideals and have the death of the innocents, or to compromise your ideals and have those innocents live? That's where he is at. And also he's going to lose the support of the people because they don't want to die. They don't want to fight when they don't have to.
- [78:13]
B
Well, you identified this as Adriano's mo But Adriano comes on the scene and tries to fix things. He tries to salvage the situation by basically saying, don't kill my dad, please.
- [78:28]
D
And he's successful as he is in everything else in life.
- [78:31]
C
Adriano is a funny character because he just sits there and he bemoans that his state is that of bemoaning. It's nice to have somebody speak from their heart about how they're feeling about things, rather than just this battle, that battle. But he is also a man at a time like he's meant to be a knight, but he can't be. And he's meant to be true to his family, but he can't be. And he's meant to be true to his lover, but he really kind of can't be. And so he's just stuck in this, this in between place, sitting down at the foot of a fallen column, as it says in my libretto, hanging his head and just saying, what do I do?
- [79:08]
D
My life has faded in its prime. All my chivalry is gone. The hope of my deeds is lost. My head will never be crowned with fortune and glory.
- [79:15]
C
As much as I love to make fun of Adriano, it is worth saying that he is a victim of this Time. Just as his love with Irene is a victim, this is what happens when you have this kind of political instability. You don't have peace. Time is people like this can't live their lives as they should. He has this vision of what his life should have been in normal times, and he can't have that. And so he doesn't know what to do because he doesn't know what else to be. He is the victim. And I think it is important to, even though he bothers me a little bit with his bemoaning, to give him his rightful due there.
- [79:49]
D
And in many other stories he would be the hero. He's got all the traits and characteristics you might think of as being a hero, particularly an operatic hero, but yeah, because his society is broken in this particular way, he can't be the person he, at least in theory, at least in the abstract, is capable of being.
- [80:26]
A
Ram.
- [80:52]
B
But unlike the previous time, when Adriano has pled with Rienzi and gotten Irene to help change Rienzi's mind. Rienzi's mind is not changed.
- [81:04]
D
Yeah, he's been radicalized. He had this ideal that didn't work. And now there is this plea for things to be done in a better way. And it's left to us not even to say whether or not it's possible, but. But the truth is he can't doesn't bend to Adriano's will. Instead he's gotta go be the victorious military hero.
- [81:28]
B
And in support of that, the people are still firmly behind Rienzi, in spite of what it might cost them. And we have one of these psych up songs, these battle songs where they're getting ready to do everything they can and believe in their cause and convince themselves and one another that they're their cause is just and right.
- [83:08]
A
I.
- [83:31]
B
And now back to our two young people in love. We have a moment between Adriano and Irene and. And they are not in accord with the way that they're seeing this, because Irene says, you must stop. You're going crazy.
- [83:46]
C
She very rightly says, you'll die if you do that. She is awesome in a lot of ways. She is very strong and very interesting.
- [83:56]
B
And like, you know, that's one in a long line of strong female characters. There may not be a lot of them, but strong women in Wagner operas, very much so.
- [84:06]
D
She's a manic Roman dream girl.
- [84:08]
C
Yeah. She tries to plead with him, but it doesn't work. He is beyond her pleading, he's beyond Rienzi's pleading. And right now we're kind of just what will be, will be.
- [84:18]
B
That's true. And we have a very touching scene. This is going to be all female voices remembering, however, that Adriano is a female singer singing the role of a male, young male. We're going to have Irene and Adriano and then the women. This is a pretty common scene in operas that are going to have men going off to war, where they are praying and hoping for the outcome of the war, of this battle.
- [84:45]
D
That all too human phenomenon of the women left behind, who are powerless to affect the outcome of things and simply know that at some point in the future they'll have the news of. Of whether or not their husbands, sons, fathers, brothers, are ever going to return to them.
- [87:47]
B
That was the women of Rome in the opera Rienzi praying to the Holy Virgin that their men are successful in battle, and.
- [87:57]
D
And to some extent, they're very successful. It's a kind of like. This is not a funny opera, but it is kind of comical how quickly the men return. They're gone, and presumably there's a battle in the background. But man, does it not last a long time. And yet it seems to have been ferocious. We're told when they return that there are many casualties, even though they seem to have completely overrun the nobles. The people have taken great losses, and this is to be expected. Very much what happened in historical contests between nobility and peasantry is that the nobility had armored knights and shock cavalry, and they were up against guys with sharpened sticks. And so even in the world where the sharpened stick guys win, it comes at a terrible price. In blood.
- [88:47]
B
Yes. And body after body after body is brought on stage, including the bodies of the leader of the Colonna family and the Orsini family.
- [88:57]
C
And Adriano's father, Colonna is one of those. So everything that he feared would come to pass has happened. And I will just note here that although I think that politically Rienzi made a mistake in sparing their lives, it is almost equally a political issue to behead these two families, because that means that now that those families have, like, a blood debt to you and they have to take up that battle, it's not like their death ends anything. So it's just more. It's more Romeo and Juliet stuff, basically.
- [89:35]
D
And again, these are Guelphs and Ghibellines, right? These are people who know how to feud. They have already feuded for a very long time, and they will feud for centuries to come. But for the moment, their power is shattered, their armies have been destroyed, and their leaders have been killed. And it seems that they have been utterly and completely defeated. Except, of course, that Adriano is there swearing vengeance.
- [90:04]
B
He reverts back to his family teaching that it's all about loyalty.
- [90:09]
C
And Baroncelli, who I have a tendency to forget Baroncelli and Cecco, but it's important once again to remember them. Here Baron Shelley makes this very important point. He says, this has been bought with blood. We have suffered a terrible loss, and these women here, they're never going to see their husbands and their brothers again. And so he's making this point that, like, we should not have had to bear this burden. This was because of your mistake. And he has been a principal supporter. Him and Checo have been principal supporters. And this is the moment, I think, where support leaves Rienzi.
- [90:42]
D
Everybody wants to follow the charismatic leader until the point where the charismatic leader starts asking things of them. And sometimes those things are necessary sacrifices, and sometimes those things are terrible prices paid for the leader's vanity. And it's left up to debate which of those two this is.
- [91:01]
C
Yeah. And at the beginning, we start with, we're saving a woman, a plebeian woman, from something bad happening to her. And here we end the act with the plebeian women having bad things happen to them. This is the whole reason that we made you, quote, unquote, king was so that we would be safe. And now we may be safe, Ish. But, like, our husbands and brothers are dead.
- [91:23]
B
And as that Act 3 ends and we move into Act 4, we have things truly turning, because Baroncelli will say, do you know that Germany's envoys are leaving Rome for good?
- [91:37]
D
And the problem here is that we have a contest of ideas about what is the legacy of Rome. And this is a very significant thing throughout all of European, and indeed beyond European history, Rome was such a powerful and such a dominant force that people tried to lay claim one way or the other to the legacy of Rome for centuries thereafter. And you had the Holy Roman Empire in the west, which was functionally where we would these days, think of Germany, Germany being. And it had an identity that was tied up with the German people or German nation. You had the Eastern Roman Empire, which was the historical continuation of the old Roman Empire, but was quite culturally different. And he did recognize their emperor as a king of sorts. And ultimately you actually even have things like the Ottomans and the Russians, who, through one way or another, are laying claims to the mantle of Rome. And so here we have a contest of ideas that Rienzi is saying, Rome the city. Rome is Rome. And therefore they should have power over things like the selection of the Holy Roman Emperor, which is interesting because throughout.
- [92:53]
B
This they refer to him as the German King. But we are to understand, we are to be knowledgeable enough in history as mid 19th century opera goers, to know that the King refers to the Holy.
- [93:05]
E
Roman Emperor, who is German, essentially.
- [93:09]
D
Yeah, this is Rome, it's Germany, and we're getting dragged into these power politics. For much of history, the contest of power in northern Italy was between the Emperor and the Pope. And that's where the original Guelph versus Ghibelline comes from. These families that line themselves up on the Pope's side or on the Emperor's side. But here he is offending the Emperor by saying that the people of Rome should have a way to choose who is going to be the next Emperor. And he's taking away that prerogative from the German lords and princes and they.
- [93:48]
B
Reject it outright and they withdraw their support.
- [93:51]
D
And his grand alliance is starting to fall apart.
- [93:55]
C
And you see this tension here. How much do we want to actually adhere to the people have the power, should have the power to make some of these great decisions versus we should sort of use the marketing of we're for the people. We should use that narrative in order to reinforce the power of the elites. And Ramsey is saying, you can't just pay lip service to this. You have to actually allow people to have this power, even if they use it for ill or they make mistakes. And many of the other people in this opera, I think, would disagree and do violently disagree with him that the people can't really be trusted to make these decisions. And even if they could, this is about power. This is about who has that power. And for them, it's important that it is the nobles and it remains the.
- [94:45]
D
Nobles, because in the end of the day, they're happy to have him reassert order, but they don't want him to have power. They want to remain themselves in charge. And despite what his perhaps lip service and perhaps his authentic loyalty on his part, they are worried that if the actual Roman Republic is re established in some way, that their power over central Italy will be shaken. And this reflects the events of 19th century Italy, where 19th century Italy was gradually moving towards reunification. But before all was said and done, great battles would have to be fought between the Italians, the people who were trying to build up an Italian state that is against both the forces of the Pope, who was still holding a great deal of temporal power in the 19th century and the Emperor, although in this case the Empire as such was not really there. It was rather the Habsburgs, the Austrians, the Austro Hungarian Empire that is opposing them. And so these forces are very live in Wagner's day and are active in the struggles in Italy, which has not fully kicked off into the first war, but has already had quite a few major and bloody skirmishes. And of course, much the same thing is happening in Germany. The Pope isn't involved in the same way, but the Austro Hungarian Empire very much is. And there is this contest again. Will the people be unified under a common vision, or are they going to stay separate?
- [96:16]
B
There are so many historical elements and pieces at play here, and it is hard. Thank you, Grant, for helping us to untangle and see these different threads, because they are all tangled together from the mid 14th century and the mid 19th century.
- [96:34]
D
Okay, out comes a shadowy figure.
- [96:38]
C
So Adriano steps out of the shadows. He is wearing a veil. And he has been listening to Baroncelli, to the people, to Cecco, talking about this relationship between himself and Irene and the potential that Colonna was being bought by this alliance. So he steps out and he says, yes, I am a witness. This is true, which, Adriano, I wish you had just stayed with the women and sung the songs. Why did you have to assert yourself? Because it just causes all sorts of nonsense here. But he reveals himself. He unveils himself to be Kelowna's son, and he basically offers to turn evidence against Rienzi, the tribune. And he does all this because he wants vengeance for his father's death.
- [97:28]
B
Yes. And we also have the Church reasserting itself here. What Rienzi assumed was going to be a celebration of the victory in battle turns into something quite different. He is met by a cardinal who doesn't celebrate his victory, but he says, the Church only receives the pure. And you, you are excommunicated. And everyone who is loyal to you is excommunicated. Which means they cannot. People who are still in communion, in good standing with the Church cannot interact with those who are excommunicated.
- [98:05]
D
Yeah, excommunication is just the harshest penalty the Catholic Church can levy. It's expelling someone from the Church. It is a remedy that was pursued many times in the medieval era as a assertion of the Church's power, that a king or a ruler or an entire nation would find itself outside of the Church's grace. And the result of all of this was that people were terrified for their souls and that they would put enormous pressure on their political Leaders to change course.
- [98:41]
B
Right. Because if you're excommunicated and denied sacraments, you will not be going to heaven.
- [98:47]
D
And so, yeah, that's the. The idea is that you have a perhaps more modern idea of religion from Rienzi himself, who is talking about how God has been with him and has been leading him along the way. And then on the other hand, you have this church in its temporal role, saying that he is going to be damned because they hold the keys to heaven and hell.
- [99:14]
C
Although I feel like it's maybe a slightly underdeveloped in the text here, why the church turns against him. It seems to happen quite quickly, but I think we can fill in the blanks there, that he's almost like sort of a fiery preacher who is striking out on his own and holding his own revivals and the establishment represented by the church, they know that that's a threat to their power, and so they join forces with the opposition.
- [99:40]
D
So in just a few short scenes, he has lost the unanimous support of the people. He has lost his little Heckle and Jekyll buddies. He has lost the support of the church and Germany, and he has lost his foreign allies. And so, one after another, he finds himself more and more isolated.
- [100:04]
C
But he has Irene, and that is important here.
- [100:08]
B
However, Adriano tries to tell Irene, you gotta leave. You are in grave danger. If you stay with him, you will be wrapped up in all that he is suffering again. Adriano tries. What he tries doesn't work.
- [100:22]
C
No. Because I think she understands their relationship is nowhere near as developed as her relationship with her brother and her relationship to her own ideals. Adriano would have to be, I think, a far more appealing man to sway her from either of those. So she. She decides to stay. Adriano says, you're mad. You'll die with him. But Rienzi, when he sees that Irene is there, he says, well, if you are still with me, then there is still a realm. And that is how the act end. Jam.
- [101:23]
A
It.
- [102:40]
B
And so, before we continue on to the fifth act, I just want to make clear what an important opera this was for Wagner and his career. This premieres in Dresden in 1842, 1843, Dresden also premieres Der Fliegen, der Hollender, the Flying Dutchman. We have an opera for everyone. Episode number 48 on that opera. Not long after that, in 8, 1845 in Dresden, Wagner also has the premiere of Tannhauser. That's when the three of us talked about on episode 131. This opera did not just play In Dresden, it quickly moved to the opera houses of Europe. And it moves over the waters too. In the UK it premieres in 1879, 1878 in the United States. But interestingly, there's that gap between 42 and then to the late 1870s, because the other Wagner operas had also played and they brought Rienzi in. People were mad for Wagner at this time. This was a huge development, even though it was considered the last of the operas before the mature operas, which begin with Defliegen der Hollender. And that's partly because he's young, he's developing his style, and also because his.
- [103:59]
E
Style does develop significantly.
- [104:02]
B
And here he's trying to follow the.
- [104:04]
E
Models of the French grand opera.
- [104:07]
C
So this opera, you've said before, Pat, was really, really popular when it premiered and kind of made Wagner's name as able to sort of play in the same space as some of these great grand, epic opera composers did. Wagner love this opera his whole life? It seems like he kind of went far away from this style. He did.
- [104:27]
E
Well, he. He wanted to distance himself from this opera because. Because he was so interested in developing.
- [104:33]
B
His own music dramas as he, he.
- [104:36]
E
Changed the name of what he wanted to call his works and not even call them operas anymore because he was developing his own vision. I mean, he, he develops his own vision to the point where towards the end of his career, he's able to have an opera house built to his specifications, which were different from any pre existing opera house. But also the subject matter, starting after this opera, his subject matter is very nationalistic. It's all based on German and Nordic source material. And so this foreign source material, like in Der Liebeswerbot, the Ban on Love, which is a reworking of a Shakespeare story, and this, which is a reworking of a. Of a piece written about Rome by an English author, he becomes much more focused on being Germanic, and that is what he considers his true work, and that's what's mostly recognized. Also, music critics will say it's not quite up to the level of these other operas, but there are. I mean, Wagner believed in himself.
- [105:43]
D
What a genuine fault.
- [105:46]
B
Yes.
- [105:47]
E
One of the things that I think is so interesting is some of the commentators on this piece of art, this Rienzi, is that Wagner saw himself as the character Rienzi, this man destined for greatness, who was great, but was misunderstood, as we're going to learn more fully, even in the fifth act, who was rejected and considered an outsider. This is a time he was writing it, when he was living in Utter poverty. Doing just reworkings and orchestrations and writing dance music. Anything to bring in enough money so that he and his wife could eat. He was suffering and felt very much underappreciated, as Rienzi himself was underappreciated. Well, that was a lot. Kathleen, you have more to tell us about the author of the source material?
- [106:37]
C
Yeah, briefly. I mean, Wagner takes up all of the oxygen in any room, and I want to give just. Just a slight little bit of oxygen back to poor Lord Lytton, who is known today by sort of a dubious. A dubious sobriquet of writing the worst openings in all of literature. So he is famous for. I don't know if anyone's a Snoopy fan. This is how I learned about this. But A Dark and Stormy Night is how he coined that. It was the beginning of one of his novels, which people have called the worst opening in all of literature. But he also coined some sort of other. Just incredible. The pen is mightier than the sword. Pursuing the almighty dollar, Calling people the great unwashed. Always a good one. An aristocrat to the end. But, yeah, he has some very memorable turns of phrase and was a really successful novelist in his day. He was not as big as Sir Walter Scott, but we're talking kind of around that sort of same type of authority. And he himself was in political office. He was Secretary of State for the colonies from 1858 to 1859, so only briefly. But when he wrote this, he was working his way up to a fairly prominent political career, but will forever be remembered as the man who wrote absolutely atrocious first lines.
- [108:00]
B
And that was a very long line. I understand the sentence took up to a page before the sentence ends. It was a dark and stormy night. It's just the beginning.
- [108:08]
C
It was the 1830s. We were very romantic. We didn't have a lot of stuff to do. We had a lot of time on our hands. We were doing things like renting castles in Italy and, you know, writing ghost stories while we went boating on the lake in storms.
- [108:23]
B
But not the great unwashed.
- [108:25]
D
They were not.
- [108:25]
C
Of course not. Yes. I mean, Lytton is this species, along with people like Byron and Jelly and all that fun stuff of this sort of gentleman with a capital G, author. And Scott also, as I mentioned, is a great example of this. The romantic young man who looks back upon the past and writes these absolute doorstops that people read feverishly in their day. But he is completely unread now. I would challenge you to find a single person that's Ever read a Lytton novel? Except for me, for my sins. But honestly, quite fun to me that this is the source material for this, because Wagner is just so heavy and serious in so many ways, and Lytton is just a little bit more of a. He's a little bit of a foppish character, and his novel is much more naive, much more romantic. And Wagner took this and kind of turned it into this apocalyptic look at a doomed civilization, basically. But together they created this piece.
- [109:26]
B
And now, returning back to our opera, I promised you in the very beginning of this show that the end of our overture, you were going to hear some of the musical themes that we hear in Rienzi's prayer. And we've talked about how he's been very much abandoned by everyone except Irene. And he has a prayer where he. He is not really conceding any faults of his own, but saying, God, you made me great. Why did you give me all this power? Help me to understand and help me to do this, the good things that I would like to do.
- [110:09]
D
Yeah. He thinks that the last people who are loyal to him are God and his sister. The church has abandoned him, the people have abandoned him. Fortune itself seems to have abandoned him. And he thought of himself as this great man, the one who was going to change the world. This Superman, this Ubermensch. And it's all coming down in flames, literally.
- [110:57]
A
Sam. Satan. Sam. Sa. Holy. Sa.
- [114:39]
D
So here at the end, the people are gathering. He's holed up with his sister in the palace, and the great unwashed are mustering, ready to burn the house to the ground. And the two of them, the last two idealists in Rome, are having their last conversation where she gives him a lot of credit. She says that he made her a Roman woman. And that status is.
- [115:13]
C
I do want to pause on that for just a second. I have to take just a second to say there's some subtext here that is interesting in a sort of queasy way. This is a love scene. In any other opera, this would be a love scene between two doomed lovers, but instead it's a brother and sister. And also this idea that, like, you made me a woman. Yeah, it's very romantic for a scene between a brother and sister. But I think that is to a very important point, which is that. That we've seen a love story here, an attempt at a love story that doesn't work. And I think Wagner is trying to tell us here, if I can be so bold as to speak for him, that the romance is not the point. That's not what he's doing. He's not creating another beautiful bel canto doomed romance. Instead, he has something that he thinks is greater than that to say. He wants to talk about family and he wants to talk about citizenship. It's about different relationships. And I think that that's quietly revolutionary because most operas are about lovers and this very much is not, I think, very notably so.
- [116:22]
B
Even as he's trying to fit into the standard European romantic mold at this time, he can't. He's still Wagner.
- [116:33]
C
He's still Wagner. He can't be anyone but himself. It's so true. And yeah, we have this moment here. The thing that it's lacking, interestingly, is any self reflection on Rienzi's part, which I think is notable as well. They're willing to die as martyrs here. They don't see that the people might have a point. They don't see that the true damage of this whole shenanigans has been borne by the blood of the people. Instead, they see themselves as holy martyrs in this moment.
- [117:03]
D
This is one of those death of the author moments, right, where like, did Wagner see it that way or did he just see them as. It's hard to say.
- [117:11]
B
It's hard to say. But Kathleen's interpretation would support the idea that Wagner saw himself in Rienzi's mold.
- [117:19]
D
Yeah, I think he very much did. But I also think that we can critique the opera and Wagner himself. I mean, I think that's generally a good idea with Wagner, because these ideas, the great man who comes in and changes history, are dangerous. Dangerous. And there is something profoundly inspiring about the figure of Rienzi, this person who challenged the emperor and challenged the Pope in ways that if he had succeeded, who knows what would have taken place? Who knows what world would have been built? And on the other hand, this opera reputedly was something that inspired in the darkest possible way, none other than Adolf Hitler.
- [117:59]
B
You know that Cosima, his second wife, the wife that he was married to at the end of his life, she gave the original manuscript of this and some of the other operas of Wagner to Adolf Hitler. And she tried to get it during. When Adolf Hitler was still alive, she tried to get it back, but he was too important to him. He believed in it too much.
- [118:21]
D
And so there's this question of the irony that people do or don't get with Wagner and sometimes the question of how much does Wagner get? The irony, which is its own issue. Is Rienzi, someone we're supposed to appreciate or is he someone we're supposed to pity? Is he someone who we're supposed to hold up as a hero or someone who we're supposed to look down upon as a villain who had all these people killed for him? And there's definitely Napoleon echoes here. Napoleon steps into the world promising a better tomorrow, a world away from. From the traditional kinds of aristocratic privilege, a world based on law, inequality. And this promise is made and it's not really kept. And more importantly, just the amount of blood that is shed for this perhaps chimeral vision is staggering. And so, yeah, this figure of Rienzi becomes very important. There are statues to him to this day, and he is an inspiration for being that man out of time, being that person who prefigured Garibaldi and the great unification of Italy. And yet Italy and Germany, these countries that unified under these circumstances, they both turned towards this dark vision of fascism.
- [119:41]
C
And it's coming. 1848, as I mentioned, is not many, many years away when this Opera premieres. And 1848 is a year of revolutions in which tens of thousands of people will die, far more will be exiled from their homeland, and it will reshape what Europe looks like going forward. And so, as the unnamed populace marches upon Rienzi to burn him and his sister alive, the spirit with which their anger burns is burning in Europe, as Wagner is writing.
- [120:13]
D
And so the people attack and the structure is set fire. And the last action of the play is this fun house mirror, terrifying version of the first scene. Yes, where Irene was safe in her home and these men climbed the balcony to carry her away. Now she is is in a home that is burning down and her lover sees this and at the last second tries to go and rescue her and the building in flames collapses down upon him.
- [120:55]
B
So we end up at the end with Irene, Rienzi and Adriano all perishing and Rome's left to its own devices, is back where they were. But we don't focus on that. Oh, Kathleen, Grant. We will listen to a bit of this very end of the opera, but before we say our goodbyes, I would like to say thank you. Thank you both so, so much for delving into, admittedly not entirely, but as much as we could get to of this rich, rich opera. Thank you, Kathleen. Thank you, Grant.
- [121:30]
D
Happy to be here.
- [121:31]
C
Thank you.
- [121:34]
A
Hear my voice Close and fly. Hiding. Joy. Sa.
- [123:30]
B
Thanks for listening to another episode of Opera for everyone. I've been your host, Pat Wright, joined.
- [123:36]
C
By Kathleen and Grant.
- [123:38]
D
If you enjoyed the show and would like to hear more, please subscribe to the Operation Opera for Everyone podcast on itunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [123:45]
C
Opera can be challenging, but everyone loves a good story, and a story set to music is even better.
- [123:52]
B
Our mission is to make opera understandable, accessible and enjoyable because we believe opera is for everyone.
- [124:07]
A
Sa.