Have you ever fallen out of love with an artist for moral reasons?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. I'm ambivalent about Richard Wagner.

Last edited Tue May 9, 2017, 09:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Some of his music is magnificent (especially Parsifal), but he was a raving anti-Semite. On the other hand, in Germany in the nineteenth century this was not at all unusual, so one could, I suppose, argue that he was just a man of his time. Although they are mostly based on Teutonic myths, the plots of his operas do not contain anti-Semitic material as far as I can tell. Since Wagner is dead, and has been for quite awhile, he's not collecting royalties, so one can buy recordings of his operas and other music without benefiting him at all. Should that make a difference? Can I like the music of a person who is now dead but who held reprehensible ideas? If he wasn't dead could I still like his music?