Mst, you are correct in your last post, Wagner indeed had many unlikeable, even odious qualities, which he did not try to hide at all, far from it. He was a fascinating individual, and possibly the greatest egotist among non-royalty who ever lived. "I am the German spirit" he once wrote, and he also once told a nobleman who had refused to give him financial backing that history would prove that he had made a mistake by not making "an investment in me", and thus having their names associated. From your research you should know that Wagner also despised pretty much anyone and anything non-German as much as he did the Jews. One famous tale is when he had fellow composer Saint-Saens and some other Frenchmen at his home in exile in Switzerland, and there had just been a little war in which Germany had pulverized France. The Frenchmen had to listen to a two hour diatribe on the subject that night, but waited patiently for him to change the subject back to music, as they all considered him such a genius and learned so much from him that they were able to ignore his bad qualities - a testament also to what must have been incredible charisma. I say this not to diminish the anti-Semitism at all, please understand, but to point out that the Jews were by no means the only objects of his diatribes. Hermann Levi, who conducted the premiere of Parsifal, was Jewish, as were many other famous musicians who championed his music. Wagner certainly had no problem hiring/working with Jewish musicians, or others who hated him and his music, such as the famous horn player Franz Strauss. I still stand by my comments in my previous post about separating the artist from the man.
