Richard wagner rienzi wikipedia

The German composer Richard Wagner was a controversial figure during his lifetime, and has continued to be so after his death.^[1] Even today he is associated in the minds of many with Nazism and his operas are often thought to extol the virtues of German nationalism.

The writer and Wagner scholar Bryan Magee has written:

I sometimes think there are two Wagners in our culture, almost unrecognizably different from one another: the Wagner possessed by those who know his work, and the Wagner imagined by those who know him only by name and reputation.^[2]

Most of these perceptions arise from Wagner's published opinions on a number of topics.

Wagner was a prolific writer who published essays and pamphlets on a wide range of subjects throughout his life.^[3] Several of his writings have achieved some notoriety, in particular, his essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (Judaism in Music), a critical view on the inf