Richard Wagner. The Leitmotif of Love

The genius of Wagner occupies one of the top places in the world musical heritage, and his work constitutes an entire era in the history of music. However, debates around him continue to this day. Wagner's works evoke fanatical enthusiasm... in some, while others experience steadfast rejection. The Saxon authorities pursued him for his revolutionary activities, while the Russians commissioned him a "National Anthem." He received enormous fees and was a pathological debtor due to his insatiable love for luxury. The composer was friends with the Russian revolutionary M. Bakunin, Bavarian King Ludwig II, philosophers A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche, and was related to F. Liszt. For many contemporaries, Wagner embodied the "debauchery of morals," a destroyer of family hearths, but he sincerely loved and found happiness in family life surrounded by children and dogs. Wagner is called the forerunner of the Nazi ideology of the Third Reich and Hitler's favorite composer. He insisted that art should have a moral impact on the public; the core of his plots comprised humanitarian ideas found only in ancient myths. After his death, his own fate became a myth...