What? Wagner sentimental!!
'People who truly appreciate great music, i.e. the Wagnerians would say Verdi, after all, is just dumbed-down trash. Wagner’s music is on an altogether higher, more intellectual, more serious stratosphere. You hum Verdi; you think Wagner. Forget the sentimental, hot, easy southern tunes of Italy; here is opera, and music, at its epic, cerebral, definitive height.
To know the Ring Cycle is to be fully immersed in opera at its highest moment of technical brilliance and compositional originality, the bridging point between the conventional works of the 19th century and the 20th century avant-garde. To understand and appreciate Wagner’s music is not to forgive his political views, but to cast them aside in the face of unconditional, irresistible, unassailable genius.' innit?
Back, I say; back behind the sofa, and take your pea-shooter with you. :-)
With apologies to Fred.