Ruining Wagner

I had to write a paper on Richard Wagner for a political science course given by a supreme German professor back in the day when I pretended to be an intellectual...much like today.

Dude was a complex individual but not unlike so many of us. He was filled with contradictions leaving him vulnerable to contemporary misconceptions.

He was who he was.

One thing I found interesting is that he, like so many philosophers and artists, lived in Italy. A land that certainly perplexed him as a German nationalist. Something tells me, and I argued this in the paper to which I received an 'A.' Italy simply overwhelmed him.

The professor giving the course considered Great Britain the 'most influential nation in world history' and Italy a 'first rate civilization first can match.'

Those words stuck with me because A) the guy sitting next to me was a die-hard English monarchist who talked happily of his times drinking 'bitter' in Italian bars. Dunno why he felt the need to tell me that... and B) the squirming by relativist students who didn't believe that some countries are better than others.

Dumbasses.

I've listened to Wagner opera's. The guy can lay it on thick I tell ya.

To those who know, he's one of the greatest opera composers in history.

That's why I link to this story about a production of 'Tannhauser' being cancelled in Dusseldorf.

I like this quote about it:

"It's sad how the Europeans are destroying true cultural treasures.  Changing the opera's setting is like painting over the Mona Lisa or tearing down the Notre Dame Cathedral and replacing it with a modern minimalist building.  If the producer of the opera really wanted to put on a show about Nazi Germany, he should have picked an original play, not perverted a piece of art that was completed before Hitler was even born.

By the way I'm Jewish and I think Wagenr's operas are some of the greatest works of art ever created."

Welcome to PC world where the sensitive ignorant rule.