Jordan Schweigel:

>...  Just as Wagner himself inflated everything he touched -- grand
>opera, the orchestra, nationalism -- so he attracts, in turn, a degress
>of opprobrium scarcely justified by his faults.  A classic case of the
>scapegoat phenomenon.

Surely not without reason.  Even Ernest Newman, ardent Wagnerite, admitted
Wagner was a first-class shit.

>There is no question of trying to cover over the flaws in the way
>that the Bayreuth Circle and its associated hagigraphers did in the
>past.  Rather it is a matter of recognizing the unwisdom of expecting
>moral stature to be commensurate with creative genius.  Indeed, one
>can go further and say that exceptionally creative ability almost
>inevitably entails a degree of self-centerdness, of naked ambition,
>of intolerance, and artists not encouraged to flaunt them.

This is a tired, tired argument.  It's the "benefit of clergy" defense
chopped down by Orwell sixty years ago at least.  The artist's creation
of wonderful art doesn't excuse him from ethical behavior.  I'm perfectly
willing to admit Wagner was one of the greatest musical dramatists ever and
a fantastic composer.  I'm less willing to excuse his often mean-spirited
conduct.  I think it would have done him a world of good if someone had
slapped him a couple of times.

>In the 19th century, however, the aura of the heroic figure of the
>genius-artist encompassed precisely such characteristics as these:
>personal peccadilloes could be condoned, even accepted as part of
>the package.

You know, it's amazing how many people believe this rather pernicious idea.
It's almost as if one can proclaim oneself a genius simply by being rude
and selfish.  I can point to great figures who were kind and generous:
Browning, Tennyson, Hardy, Liszt, Grieg, Borodin, Vaughan Williams, Holst,
Elgar, Dvorak, Copland, and so on.

Of course, at this point it doesn't matter how big an SOB Wagner was.
He and everybody who knew him are dead.  We will never find ourselves at
a party in which he is a fellow guest.  All we have is his work - in short,
the best of him.  However, while we can admire the work, I don't see why we
must admire the man as well.

Steve Schwartz