Rienzi friend Apel, who had likely first made the suggestion that Wagner compose "Rienzi", mentions a plan to perform the overture to "Rienzi" "a fortnight hence", but contains a clear indication that her husband had just been committed to a debtors' prison. The full score of "Rienzi" was completed on 19 November 1840. In 1841 Wagner moved to Meudon, just outside Paris, where the debt laws could be more easily evaded, whilst awaiting developments for "Rienzi", having already written to King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, requesting that he order a production of the work in Dresden. With the support of
Overture to a Picaresque Comedy Overture to a Picaresque Comedy The Overture to a Picaresque Comedy is a concert overture composed by Arnold Bax in 1930. It was premiered by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by the dedicatee, Sir Hamilton Harty, in November 1931. The work is untypical of its composer, who was not usually associated with comedy in music. Bax was generally associated with music that the 1955 reference work "The Record Guide" called "intrinsically noble, humane, and capable of a certain melancholy grandeur". In his youth, Bax had been greatly taken with the works of Richard Strauss, before his enthusiasm was diverted to a