I have often heard the statement made by foreign singers, as a demonstrated fact, that the German artists are artists in feeling indeed, and serious in their devotion, but that their singing is crude.

Wagner then sent him to Vienna to stage Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (the last two Ring dramas) there. 9 "From the New World" which greatly influenced the direction of American classical music. He also had a significant role in the genesis of Edvard Grieg's Lyric Suite.