Rienzi in April/May 2009 and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Oper Leipzig in April/May 2010. In July 2013, the bicentennial year of Wagner's birth, performances of all three of Wagner's early operas, including "Rienzi", took place for the first time at Bayreuth, at the Oberfrankenhalle. This performance trimmed some parts, including the second-act ballet. The Australian premiere was a concert performance by Melbourne Opera in December 2013, as part of the bicentennial celebrations. The opera opens with a substantial overture which begins with a trumpet call (which in act 3 we learn is the war call of the Colonna family)
Julius Caesar (overture) F minor, the "uncompromising sonata form", and the coda in the major key; and to a lesser extent his concert overture "Coriolan". Schumann started writing the music in mid-January 1851. His wife Clara noted in her diary on 17 January that he was now working on the overture. He wrote out the full score between 27 January and 2 February, finishing it only a few days before he conducted the premiere of his 3rd Symphony, "Rhenish" (6 February). The work had its premiere on 3 August 1852 in Düsseldorf. Earlier that year he had consulted Dr Wolfgang Müller about his