Rienzi can be noted that "Rienzi" prefigures themes (brother/sister relationships, social order and revolution) to which Wagner was often to return in his later works. The success of "Rienzi" – his first real success of any kind – was crucial in Wagner's career, launching him as a composer to be reckoned with. It was followed, within months, by his appointment as Kapellmeister at the Dresden Opera (February 1843), which also gave him considerable prestige. It also received critical acclaim elsewhere in Europe. The young Eduard Hanslick, later to be one of Wagner's foremost critical adversaries, wrote in 1846 in Vienna: I
Overture opposed to one serving to begin a later section of the work". Although by the end of the eighteenth century opera overtures were already beginning to be performed as separate items in the concert hall, the "concert overture", intended specifically as an individual concert piece without reference to stage performance and generally based on some literary theme, began to appear early in the Romantic era. Carl Maria von Weber wrote two concert overtures, "Der Beherrscher der Geister" ('The Ruler of the Spirits', 1811, a revision of the overture to his unfinished opera "Rübezahl" of 1805), and "Jubel-Ouvertüre" ('Jubilee Overture', 1818,