ABSTRACT
Friedrich Nietzsche certainly thought so; so would Thomas Mann. And no musician, nor indeed anyone remotely interested in music or culture in general, was able to avoid the heavy shadow cast by Richard Wagner. In any case, Wagner’s musical legacy should be sought elsewhere, a fine irony given Bayreuth’s insistence, ultimately unsuccessful, that German copyright law be modified so that Wagner’s final drama, Parsifal, might be restricted to the theatre for which it was written. Wagner’s influence in France ran far deeper than the single example of Debussy; indeed, since Baudelaire it had been estimable. Despite the understandable hostility voiced towards Wagner following his attitude during the Franco-Prussian War – the play, Eine Kapitulation, mocking Parisian suffering was a particular low point, though Wagner might not unreasonably have pointed to the shabby treatment he himself had suffered in Paris – Wagner’s stock rose rapidly after his death.
