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
Aotearoa (overture) Aotearoa (overture) Aotearoa is a concert overture written for orchestra by New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn in the year 1940. The overture is one of three early works by Lilburn which center on the theme of national identity; the other two are 1944's "Landfall in Unknown Seas", for narrator and orchestra, and the tone poem "A Song of Islands" of 1946. The title of the overture ("Aotearoa") is taken from the Māori name for the islands. Lilburn wrote the overture while he was still a student at London's Royal College of Music, and it was premiered in Great Britain, at