Richard Wagner - Rienzi - Kollo, Adam, Schreier - Hollreiser 1991Cola Rienzi - René Kollo, Irene - Siv Wennberg, Steffano Colonna - Nikolaus Hillebrand, Adriano Colonna - Janis Martin, Paolo Orsini - Theo Adam, Raimondo - Siegfried Vogel, Ein Friendensbote - Ingeborg Springer, Baroncelli - Peter Schreier, Cecco del Vecchio - Günther Leib
Orchestra/Ensemble: Leipzig Radio Chorus, Dresden Staatskapelle, Dresden State Opera Chorus
Conducted by Heinrich Hollreiser
Selection recorded August and September, 1974, and February and April, 1976, Lukaskirche, Dresden
The EMI Rienzi was the first big label attempt to capture the work that put Wagner on the musical map of Europe in 1837. Each of Wagner's first three works finds the composer imitating one of Europe's major musical lights of the first part of the 19th century, with Rienzi being his de facto tribute to the grandiose style of Meyerbeer. Little of the mature of Wagner is apparent in the set-piece arias and conventional five-act structure of this behemoth. However, there are memorable arias (particularly Rienzi's prayer) and orchestral passages, which explain the attraction of the work to the audiences of the last century. Kollo sounds young in this '70s-era recording, though his cabaret-style delivery is not quite as well suited to Rienzi as to Tannhäuser. Hollreiser uses the Dresden forces in an appropriately bombastic manner, providing the listener with a glimpse of the heroic style of opera in vogue during the first part of the last century. --Christian C. Rix
Find more details at Amazon and listen to the tracks at Arkivmusic
