Bayreuth Canon - The Canon As A Whole

The Canon As A Whole

Together, these make up the last ten of the thirteen operas that Wagner completed. He rejected the first three, Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot and Rienzi, as apprentice works. Although these have been staged elsewhere (and Rienzi was very popular into the early 20th century), the works in the canon exceed them, both in the number of performances given and in the number of available recordings. The term Bayreuth canon is therefore sometimes glossed as meaning the composer's mature operas. Georg Solti was the first conductor to complete studio recordings of all the works in the canon, starting in 1958 with Das Rheingold and finishing in 1986 with Lohengrin.