Richard Wagner was a difficult person, to put it lightly'an infamous anti-Semite and world-historical egoist known for displaying ingratitude and duplicity toward lovers, friends, and benefactors alike. Years after the German composer died in 1883, Adolf Hitler and his followers found much to like in Wagner's writings on national purity'and also in his music, which became tightly integrated alongside the iconography of the Third Reich. 'Indisputably a genius,' the poet W. H. Auden is said to have put it, 'but apart from that an absolute shit.' That first quality has usually mattered more. Since his death, his music has been generally held as too sublime'or at least too important'to set aside. His 10 operas remain core pillars of the classical repertoire (except in Israel, where his works are informally banned). Wagner's reputation can be both a headache and an irresistible challenge to opera directors. Though opera usually demands strict fidelity to the music as it was written,...
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