All the stale old devices of explanatory asides are gone, as are the convenient goings-off and comings-on of the dramatis personæ at the sweet will of the composer who wants here a duet and a trio there. In 1842 Wagner finished first Rienzi and then the Dutchman; in April of 1845, that is to say three years later, Tannhäuser was complete, and in October of that year it was produced at Dresden.