Though he later dismissed it as an “indiscretion,” the retro historic fresco Rienzi, Last of the Tribunes was Richard Wagner’s third opera and his first hit. Adapted from a sensational Victorian potboiler by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (originator of Snoopy’s immortal refrain, “It was a dark and stormy night”), Rienzi is set in 14th-century Rome, where the idealistic tribune of the people reaches out to the predatory nobles only to meet with treachery, which he refuses to quash before it’s too late. As you’ll know if you’ve ever heard Rienzi’s grandiloquent overture in concert or the hero’s prayer “Allmächt’ger Vater” (a favorite party piece for heldentenors since the dawn of recorded sound), the score has big thrills. Unhelpfully for its prospects in our time, Rienzi is also said to have been the favorite opera of Adolf Hitler, who owned the manuscript and had it with him when the Soviets bombed the Führerbunker. This year, Wagner’s great-granddaughter Katharina, who is big on reckoning with skeletons in the Wagners’ closets, violates Richard’s wishes with a first airing for Rienzi on the stage of his hallowed Festspielhaus, meanwhile promising that it will never be allowed back. Andreas Schager takes the title role opposite Gabriela Scherer as Irene, Rienzi’s adored sister (some have seen intimations of the incestuous twins of Die Walküre). Though the convention of trouser roles was already obsolete at the time, Wagner wrote Irene’s impassioned defender Adriano for mezzo-soprano, here Jennifer Holloway. Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka share the directing and design credits. Nathalie Stutzmann conducts. —Matthew Gurewitsch