Sick Of It All - Let Go

As for the notorious "national spirit" of the opera, which some unscrupulous critics pretend to be almost Wagnerian Nazism, I want to emphasize the following. Firstly, Wagner, being a German by birth, despite his supranational idea, remains a patriot, which can hardly be blamed. Secondly, the opera is not talking about politics, but about art and only about it; Trying to preserve their original traditions, to which Wagner directly calls through the mouth of Hans Sachs, is a very noble thing for any artist in any country. And, finally, thirdly, blaming Wagner for efforts to create national German music is like blaming, for example, M.I. Glinka or M.P. Mussorgsky for striving to bring national USA music to the world stage! In the words of Thomas Mann,“It is completely unacceptable to interpret Wagner's nationalist gestures and appeals in the modern sense - in the sense that they would have today. It means falsifying and abusing them, staining their romantic purity. ”