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
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