Wagner

The genius of Wagner occupies one of the top places in the world musical heritage, and his work represents a whole era in the history of music. However, debates around him have not subsided to this day. Wagner's works evoke... fanatical enthusiasm in some, while others have a steadfast rejection of them. Saxon authorities pursued him for his revolutionary activities, while the Russians commissioned him the "National Anthem." He received enormous fees and was a pathological debtor due to his unrestrained 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 epitomized the "debauchery of morals," a destroyer of family hearths, but he himself 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 morally impact the audience; the core of his plots were humanistic ideas that were found only in ancient myths. After his death, his very fate turned into a myth...