When viewed alongside the rest of Richard Wagner's canon, Rienzi undeniably falls short of the innovation and inspiration that define his later works. Wagner himself refused to allow it to be performed at Bayreuth, and none other than Hans von Bülow cheekily dubbed it "Meyerbeer's best opera." Yet, unlike Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot, Rienzi has never completely vanished from the operatic consciousness. Upon revisiting it, I found that setting aside expectations shaped by Wagner's mature masterpieces allowed for genuine enjoyment. The opera offers thrilling choral scenes, and Wagner's ever-present nationalism—here in a Roman rather than Germanic guise—is unmistakable. Wolfgang Windgassen does his best with the rather one-dimensional title role, often relying on the beauty and elegance of his tone to compensate for the character's lack of depth.