History YMMV / RichardWagner

* AmericansHateTingle: His music is highly divisive in Israel, owing to its later association with Nazism.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time, such as his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' (''Jewishness in Music''). Solidifying his infamy was UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler being a big fan of his music while sharing anti-Semitic beliefs but [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust taking them to the extreme]], as well as Hitler's friendliness with members of the Wagner family and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising victims in concentration camps. It is debated if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and he had respect for Jewish artists like his conductor friend Hermann Levi, who had immense respect for Wagner and acted as one of his pallbearers (though Wagner asked Levi to baptize himself as a Christian to conduct the ''[[Literature/{{Parzival}} Parsifal]]'' premiere and backed down only when UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria stepped in). Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been met with mass protests.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** Wagner's ''Musik der Zukunft'' ("The Music of the Future") was considered daringly, even outrageously, innovative in his own time; but he became so influential that his music is now reckoned old-fashioned and even stereotypical by some.
** Wagner's ''leitmotif'' technique - that is, associating one musical idea with a particular character, item or feeling and repeating it whenever that/they recurred - was revolutionary at the time, but is standard practice in film music today. His writings also had a huge influence on the development of musical theater.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Not too many fans of Wagner care about ''Die Feen'' or ''Das Liebesverbot''. You might know of somebody who likes ''Rienzi'', but he or she will probably enjoy everything thereafter as well. Overlaps with CanonDiscontinuity, as Wagner's own Bayreuth Festival has never presented these early operas, though they have announced plans to finally present ''Rienzi'' in 2026.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler being a big fan of his music while sharing anti-Semitic beliefs but [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust taking them to the extreme]], and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is debated if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' (''Jewishness in Music'') essay, he never tried to hunt them down or murder them (nor did he have disrespect for his Jewish conductor friend Hermann Levi, merely asking him to baptize himself as a Christian to conduct the ''[[Literature/{{Parzival}} Parsifal]]'' premiere and backing down when UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria stepped in, and Levi had immense, lifelong respect for Wagner in turn and ended up one of his pallbearers). Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been met with mass protests.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Not too many fans of Wagner care about ''Die Feen'' or ''Das Liebesverbot''. You might know of somebody who likes ''Rienzi'', but he or she will probably enjoy everything thereafter as well.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler being a big fan of his music while sharing anti-Semitic beliefs but [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust taking them to the extreme]], and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is debated if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' (''Jewishness in Music'') essay, he never tried to hunt them down or murder them (nor did he have disrespect for his Jewish conductor friend Hermann Levi, merely asking him to baptize himself as a Christian to conduct the ''[[Literature/{{Parzival}} Parsifal]]'' premiere and backing down when UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria stepped in, and Levi had immense, lifelong respect for Wagner in turn). Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been met with mass protests.

* AmericansHateTingle: His music is hated in Israel, owing to its association with Nazism.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler being a big fan of his music while sharing anti-Semitic beliefs but [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust taking them to the extreme]], and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is debated if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' (''Jewishness in Music'') essay, he never tried to hunt them down or murder them (nor did he have disrespect for his Jewish conductor friend Hermann Levi, merely asking him to baptize himself as a Christian to conduct the ''[[Literature/{{Parzival}} Parsifal]]'' premiere and backing down when UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria stepped in). Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been met with mass protests.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler being a big fan of his music while sharing anti-Semitic beliefs but [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust taking them to the extreme]], and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is debated if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' (''Jewishness in Music'') essay, he never tried to hunt them down or murder them (nor did he have disrespect for his Jewish conductor friend Hermann Levi, merely asking him to baptize himself as a Christian to conduct the ''[[Literature/{{Parzival}} Parsifal]]'' premiere and backing down when UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria stepped in). Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been met with protests.

* EndingFatigue: Wagner has been accused of it.

* FandomEnragingMisconception: Most Wagner fans will get salty if he's referred to as a "[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi composer]]." Although [[HitlerAteSugar many of the Nazis were indeed fans of Wagner]], Wagner never returned the dubious compliment since he had been ''dead for several decades'' before the Nazi Party ever existed. [[note]]For reference, [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] was born in 1889 and the Nazi Party was formed around 1920; Wagner died in 1883. During his lifetime, Wagner was involved with left-wing and anarchist political groups, making it extremely unlikely that he would have approved of the Nazis' authoritarian views. Then again, there's a lot less defense for his infamously vicious prose articles which supported anti-Semitism and German nationalism, to the point that they were {{Quote Mine}}d for Nazi propaganda, giving him at very best extremely UnfortunateImplications on that score. Either way, the point is moot since, again, he had been dead for over 40 years.[[/note]]

* MisattributedSong: No, Wagner did ''not'' write any part of ''Carmina Burana''. Carl Orff began writing it in 1935 (Wagner had been dead for 52 years by then) and the collection of poems and texts it was based on dated back to the 13th century at the latest.
** Nor did he write "In the Hall of the Mountain King". That was Edvard Grieg, but at least it was written within Wagner's lifetime (1875, 8 years before his death), making the error slightly more forgivable.
* MusicToInvadePolandTo: Wagner is often used as background music for scenes of war-related activities (including UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). This is partly because ThoseWackyNazis actually were fond of Wagner's music and occasionally used it in their propaganda, which has given it UnfortunateImplications in some circles to this day. Since Wagner himself died long before the Nazis rose to power, this may be largely a case of HitlerAteSugar; however, it's complicated by the fact that he is also on record with some nasty anti-Semitic statements of his own. On the other hand, complicating things still further are the fact that Wagner was also a left-leaning socialist for much of his life, befriended Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakhunin and participated in the Dresden May Uprising (which got him exiled by the Saxon government), and expressed a strong distrust of power in his works (along with a belief in ThePowerOfLove). In other words, much like the case of his erstwhile friend Creator/FriedrichNietzsche, it is quite likely that his untimely death resulted in his appropriation by people of whom he is unlikely to have approved in the slightest.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] being a big fan of his music while sharing his political and social beliefs but [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust taking them to the extreme]], and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is debated if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' (''Jewishness in Music'') essay, he never tried to hunt them down or murder them. Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina Banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been overthrown by mass protests.
* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Wagner's ''Musik der Zukunft'' ("The Music of the Future") was considered daringly, even outrageously, innovative in his own time; but he became so influential that his music is now reckoned old-fashioned and even stereotypical by some.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks / VindicatedByHistory: Wagner's popularity dismayed many of his non-fans in the 1800s, some of them decrying the ruin of society. In Creator/JulesVerne's Literature/ParisInTheTwentiethCentury, a bitter composer describes Wagner as one of the worst things ever to happen to music:
-->... in the last century [the 1800s], a certain Richard Wagner, a sort of messiah who has been insufficiently crucified, invented the [[CapitalLettersAreMagic Music of the Future]] and we're still enduring it; in his day, melody was already being suppressed, and he decided it was appropriate to get rid of harmony as well -- and the house has remained empty ever since. ''[Verne then [[AuthorTract spends the rest of the chapter]] describing the musical crimes of the Church of the Wagnerians, and how music was clearly ruined by this hard modern sound.]''

* UnfortunateImplications: Wagner's published prose writings infamously include some extended pieces of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_controversies#Antisemitism vicious anti-Semitic screed]]. (Notably, despite the vogue of anti-Semitism in 19th-century Europe, this was ''not'' considered FairForItsDay; even his contemporaries expressed shock and embarrassment at how hateful the articles were.) This has led to a [[FlameWar long and heated controversy]] as to how much his hateful personal views should influence perception of his musical works, where they are not stated directly.

* AmericansHateTingle: See BannedInChina on the Trivia page.

* MoneyDearBoy: Asked for his favourite work of his own, Wagner once replied that it was the march for the 1876 world exhibition in Philadelphia. Why? Because it was the work for which he was paid best.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] being a big fan of his music while sharing his political and social beliefs but [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust taking them to the extreme]], and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is debated if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' ("Jewishness in Music") essay, he never tried to hunt them down or murder them. Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina Banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been overthrown by mass protests.

** Nor did he write "In the Hall of the Mountain King." That was Edvard Grieg, but at least it was written within Wagner's lifetime (1875, 8 years before his death), making the error slightly more forgivable.

* UnfortunateImplications: Wagner's published prose writings infamously include some extended pieces of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_controversies#Antisemitism vicious anti-Semitic screed]]. (Notably, despite the vogue of anti-Semitism in 19th-century Europe, this was ''not'' considered FairForItsDay; even his contemporaries expressed shock and embarrassment at how hateful the articles were.) This has led to a [[FlameWar long and heated controversy]] as to how much his hateful personal views should influence perception of his musical works, where they are not stated directly. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment We will not attempt to answer that question here]].

-->... in the last century [the 1800s], a certain Richard Wagner, a sort of messiah who has been insufficiently crucified, invented the [[CapitalLettersAreMagic Music of the Future]] and we're still enduring it; in his day, melody was already being suppressed, and he decided it was appropriate to get rid of harmony as well -- and the house has remained empty ever since. ''[Verne then [[AuthorTract spends the rest of the chapter]] describing the musical crimes of the Church of the Wagnerians, and how music was clearly [[SocietyMarchesOn ruined by this hard modern sound]].]''

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] being a big fan of his music while sharing his political and social beliefs, and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is unknown if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' ("Jewishness in Music") essay, he never tried to hunt them down or murder them. Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina Banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been overthrown by mass protests.

* FandomEnragingMisconception: Most Wagner fans will get salty if he's referred to as a "[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi composer]]." Although [[HitlerAteSugar many of the Nazis were indeed fans of Wagner]], Wagner never returned the dubious compliment since he had been ''dead for several decades'' before the Nazi Party ever existed. [[note]]For reference, the Nazi Party was formed around 1920; Wagner died in 1883. During his lifetime, Wagner was involved with left-wing and anarchist political groups, making it extremely unlikely that he would have approved of the Nazis' authoritarian views. Then again, there's a lot less defense for his infamously vicious prose articles which supported anti-Semitism and German nationalism, to the point that they were {{Quote Mine}}d for Nazi propaganda, giving him at very best extremely UnfortunateImplications on that score. Either way, the point is moot since, again, he had been dead for over 40 years.[[/note]]

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains a very controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] being a big fan of his music while sharing his political and social beliefs, and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is unknown if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' ("Jewishness in Music") essay, he never tried to murder them. Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina Banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been overthrown by mass protests.

* AwesomeEgo: By all accounts the man was a ''massive'' egotist and never afraid to share his high opinion of himself. Depending who you ask, that could make him either an InsufferableGenius who had a {{Determinator}}'s faith in the value of his work -- or just plain insufferable.

* AwesomeEgo: By all accounts the man was a ''massive'' egotist and never afraid to share his high opinion of himself. Depending who you ask, that could make him either an InsufferableGenius who had a {{Determinator}}'s faith in the value of his work-- or just plain insufferable.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Wagner is regarded as an innovative, influential and important composer, but to this day he remains an extremely controversial figure for his anti-Semitism, which by accounts was extreme even by the standards of his own time. Solidifying his infamy was [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] being a big fan of his music while sharing his political and social beliefs, and the Nazis using his music for propaganda, traumatising Nazi victims in concentration camps. It is unknown if Wagner would have supported the Nazis or not, as he died six years before Hitler was even born, and despite his attempts to damage the reputations of Music/FelixMendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer with his notorious ''Das Judenthum in der Musik'' ("Jewishness in Music") essay, he never tried to murder them. Nevertheless, his music is all but [[BannedInChina Banned in Israel]], and attempts to perform his music there have been overthrown by mass protests.

* UnfortunateImplications: Wagner's published prose writings infamously include some extended pieces of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_controversies#Antisemitism vicious anti-Semitic screed]]. (Notably, despite the vogue of anti-Semitism in 19th-century Europe, this was ''not'' considered FairForItsDay; even his contemporaries expressed shock and embarrassment at how hateful the articles were.) This has led to a [[FlameWar long and heated controversy]] as to how much his hateful personal views should influence perception of his musical works, where they are not stated directly. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment We will not attempt to answer that question here]].

* FandomEnragingMisconception: Most Wagner fans will get salty if he's referred to as a "[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi composer]]." Although [[HitlerAteSugar many of the Nazis were indeed fans of Wagner]], Wagner never returned the dubious compliment since he had been ''dead for several decades'' before the Nazi Party ever existed. [[note]]For reference, the Nazi Party was formed around 1920; Wagner died in 1883. During his lifetime, Wagner was involved with left-wing and anarchist political groups, making it extremely unlikely that he would have approved of the Nazis' authoritarian views. Then again, there's a lot less defense for his infamously vicious prose articles which supported antisemitism and German nationalism, to the point that they were {{Quote Mine}}d for Nazi propaganda, giving him at very best extremely UnfortunateImplications on that score. Either way, the point is moot since, again, he had been dead for over 40 years.[[/note]]

* MusicToInvadePolandTo: Wagner is often used as background music for scenes of war-related activities (including UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). This is partly because ThoseWackyNazis actually were fond of Wagner's music and occasionally used it in their propaganda, which has given it UnfortunateImplications in some circles to this day. Since Wagner himself died long before the Nazis rose to power, this may be largely a case of HitlerAteSugar; however, it's complicated by the fact that he is also on record with some nasty anti-semitic statements of his own. On the other hand, complicating things still further are the fact that Wagner was also a left-leaning socialist for much of his life, befriended Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakhunin and participated in the Dresden May Uprising (which got him exiled by the Saxon government), and expressed a strong distrust of power in his works (along with a belief in ThePowerOfLove). In other words, much like the case of his erstwhile friend Creator/FriedrichNietzsche, it is quite likely that his untimely death resulted in his appropriation by people of whom he is unlikely to have approved in the slightest.