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
Rienzi Ley advocated using a modern composition to open the Party Rallies in Nuremberg, but Hitler rejected this idea: "You know, Ley, it isn't by chance that I have the Party Rallies open with the overture to "Rienzi". It's not just a musical question. At the age of twenty-four this man, an innkeeper's son, persuaded the Roman people to drive out the corrupt Senate by reminding them of the magnificent past of the Roman Empire. Listening to this blessed music as a young man in the theater at Linz, I had the vision that I too must someday succeed in uniting