Editing Richard Wagner (section)

==== Early works (to 1842) ====
Wagner's earliest attempts at opera were often uncompleted. Abandoned works include [[Die Laune des Verliebten|a pastoral opera]] based on [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s ''[[:de:Die Laune des Verliebten|Die Laune des Verliebten]]'' (''The Infatuated Lover's Caprice''), written at the age of 17,{{sfn|Millington|2001a|p=321}} ''[[Die Hochzeit]]'' (''The Wedding''), on which Wagner worked in 1832,{{sfn|Millington|2001a|p=321}} and the [[singspiel]] ''[[Männerlist größer als Frauenlist]]'' (''Men are More Cunning than Women'', 1837–1838). ''[[Die Feen]]'' (''The Fairies'', 1833) was not performed in the composer's lifetime,{{sfn|Millington|2001a|pp=271–273}} and ''[[Das Liebesverbot]]'' (''The Ban on Love'', 1836) was withdrawn after its first performance.{{sfn|Millington|2001a|pp=273–274}} ''[[Rienzi]]'' (1842) was Wagner's first opera to be successfully staged.{{sfn|Millington|2001a|p=274–276}} The compositional style of these early works was conventional—the relatively more sophisticated ''Rienzi'' showing the clear influence of [[Grand Opera]] ''à la'' [[Gaspare Spontini|Spontini]] and Meyerbeer—and did not exhibit the innovations that would mark Wagner's place in musical history. Later in life, Wagner said that he did not consider these works to be part of his [[wikt:oeuvre|''oeuvre'']],{{sfn|Magee|1988|p=26}} and they have been performed only rarely in the last hundred years, although the overture to ''Rienzi'' is an occasional concert-hall piece. ''Die Feen'', ''Das Liebesverbot'', and ''Rienzi'' were performed at both Leipzig and Bayreuth in 2013 to mark the composer's bicentenary.<ref>[http://www.wagnerjahr2013.de/en/wagner_2013.html Wagnerjahr 2013] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130207101729/http://www.wagnerjahr2013.de/en/wagner_2013.html |date=7 February 2013 }} website, accessed 14 November 2012</ref>