Polémicas wagnerianas en el siglo XIX en España

Spanish musical criticism raises in the 1860s an objection on the validity in two systems considered exclusive: Italian opera and Wagnerian music drama. In the next decade this antagonism will result the emergence of controversies that address, among other issues, the role that in the lyric drama must play text, music, singer, orchestra, melody and harmony. Although with the aesthetic debate forever as a backdrop, the controversies are motivated and are catalysts for publishing interests, nationalist clashes, personal quarrels and generation clashes. In this article we review diachronically these discussions, in which the controversial German composer’s personality is a determinant factor negatively.