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)
Santiago de Espada Santiago de Espada Santiago de Espada is a concert overture by the Australian composer Malcolm Williamson. Written in 1956 when Williamson was barely 25, it was his first mature orchestral work. The overture was first heard in June 1957 when the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult included it in a private concert at St. Pancras Town Hall, London (an event which also featured the première of Williamson's Symphony No. 1 "Elevamini"). Despite this, it wasn't until a broadcast in February 1958 that the work had its first public airing. The overture was not performed in Australia until