"The fact that Wagner's operas use German myth doesn't make them nationalistic, any more than Britten's Peter Grimes or Philip Glass's 10,000 Airplanes on the Roof are (both use stories local to where the composers lived).

In fact the only one of his operas with a storyline out of conservative ideology is his first big success, Rienzi, based on a novel set in Italy by an Englishman and first promoted by a French Jew. (Hitler seems to have liked it, for reasons which nobody can make sense of)."

I refer you to my post above, about "Lohengrin". Hitler loved that one too, and it's obvious why when you read the synopsis, or watch the opera. It's exactly the kind of narrative a fascist would love: the tale of a political coup that is supposedly legitimized by fate, led by a strong hero "destined" to lord it over everyone else, sweeping away the weak and ineffectual.

Pomposity (and, hence, ridiculousness) runs through almost every line of its libretto. The music's pretty crass too. I can't imagine how anyone could stage it without it seeming comical. (Which was certainly the case for the Covent Garden production I saw a year or two ago)