Talk:Richard Wagner

Pronunciation

The so-called "English" pronunciation given is actually the American one. In England the r is silent unless followed by a vowel in the next word. Peter jackson (talk) 15:41, 10 June 2009 (UTC) Purely coincidentally, I have my concern about the pronunciation as well. It isn't cited. How can we be sure that it isn't just a hoax? Concerning the comment above, as far as I know there is no rule saying that only the BBC English pronunciation is accepted. Besides, many rhonic accents are not American - a Scot might pronounce the r sound without getting into any trouble. Kayau David Copperfield MOBY DICK the great gatsby 05:33, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

/wægnɚ/ is a real pronunciation; I don't have a source. As far as I am aware, it exists solely in the United States. Why, why, why there is such a pronunciation I don't know. I've never liked the sound of it, and to me, it is ignorance of the word's origins. I'm not sure the above pronunciation should be on this page, though, because, again, as far as I am aware, it is used never when referencing Richard Wagner, but others with the surname. I might remove it soon, if there's no objection. 79.71.113.135 (talk) 00:41, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

There is no reason to include a pronunciation that never applies to the individual it is trying to describe. No one, not even Americans, pronounce this composers name as /wægnɚ/, though they might pronounce a different individual this way. The pronunciation guide should be just that, a guide to correct pronunciation, not a list of the various ways people mispronounce a name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.85.4.99 (talk) 21:15, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

"Jews"

In the controversies section: out side of Wagner's usual anti-Semitic diatribes, the word "Jew" appears to continue to stay with it is antisemitic overtones (i know this is not how it is meant by the author but it is how it reads to me) . While we need to make clear Wagner's "views"; outside of his quotes, could we use language less emotionally and historically "loaded"? Replace "Jews" with "Jewish people" for example. Or something that seems less value laden? Lotus Blossom (ak the 7th) (talk) 20:10, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

As a Jew, and one who is proud to be one and to be called one, may I state it is utter nonsense to claim that the word in itself is prejudicial or racist in any way. It is simply descriptive, exactly analogous to 'Englishman', 'Frenchman' etc., etc. Of course some foolish people may use these and similar words in an offensive way but that is no reflection on the words themselves. Please let us not use Wikipedia to rewrite the English language in any partisan manner.--Smerus (talk) 06:35, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

PS - see also the WP articel Jew - should we delete this?--Smerus (talk) 06:36, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Lotus Blossom (ak the 7th) was a sockpuppet. --Kleinzach 09:35, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Wagner's Influence

The article says that Rossini was a composer that resisted Wagner's influence. I think this isn't really a very meaningful comment. Firstly, Rossini was a composer of an older generation than Wagner, and it is relatively uncommon for composers who are much older to be influenced by those who are much younger. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Rossini had largely stopped composing by the time that Wagner's seminal works were being written. So which WORKS by Rossini resisted Wagner's influence? It is true that Rossini made various witty comments attacking Wagner, but to say that he resisted Wagner's influence in a musical sense doesn't seem to have much meaning... Museslave (talk) 07:58, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Rossini lived until 1868. I've changed the word 'influence' to 'attraction' but maybe someone should find the quotation and nail it down? --Kleinzach 09:33, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Downgrading

Tpbradbury has just downgraded this article to start class. Would he like to explain his reasons? --Kleinzach 11:51, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

I tried to move it to c-class but the Wagner project doesn't support that. I now see that project hasn't changed-up the b-class criteria like most projects. sorry, feel free to change back up to B for that project, Tom B (talk) 12:11, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

OK, but why did you want to change the assessment anyway? And why did you change the ratings on all the other banners? Did you read the assessment page before you did this? I see you haven't written anything there. --Kleinzach 14:03, 13 February 2010 (UTC)