Rienzi the German Empire and making it great once more." The original performance version of "Rienzi" was lost in the Dresden bombing of 1945, and the manuscript (on which it had been based) was lost in Berlin in 1945. No full copies had been made of either version, as far as is known. However, "Rienzi" was never established by the composer into a finalized version, so all performances of it since 1945 have been reconstructions. A vocal score of the early 1840s, based on Wagner's draft, remains as the only existing primary source. Two surviving full scores made in Dresden in
The Wasps (Vaughan Williams) and is not often performed. Vaughan Williams later arranged parts of the music into an orchestral suite (about 26 minutes), in five parts: The "Overture" is quite concise (about 10 minutes) and is a popular independent concert piece today. The main theme is pentatonic. There are close to 30 recordings now available of the overture. The "March Past of the Kitchen Utensils" is also quite charming and sometimes separately performed. The entire orchestral suite is also sometimes performed and recorded. The year before he wrote "The Wasps", Vaughan Williams spent three months in Paris studying orchestration with Maurice Ravel. Although