Mikael Rasmusson quotes me and asks:

>>The only good music Wagner ever composed he filched from Mendelssohn's
>>overtures, particularly the Hebrides and Calm Sea and Properous Voyage.
>>Now isn't that ironic?
>
>Are you referring to the flying Dutchman? Don't you like his later Liszt
>"filches"? (is that proper English?)

Yes, but more so "Meistersinger." Someday, it will discovered that
"Meistersinger" was written by a little known Swiss composer and wrongly
attributed to Wagner.  It is like anti-matter is to the rest of Wagner.
It is small scale, rests solidly on real people, exults civic, democratic
pride rather than the totalitarian state, is in the tradition of comic
operas like Smetana's "Bartered Bride" going back "Freischutz."

Andrew Carlan