[Kenny Bunk]

Rossini said that Wagner has beautiful moments and awful quarter-hours... that Lohengrin couldn’t be appreciated at first hearing ... and he had no intention of hearing it a second time.

Gioacchino spoke for me. Sauerbraten mit kaessele ripchen. A little goes a long way.

[SamAdams76]

Other composers made a lot of snotty remarks about Wagner's music, probably out of petty jealousy.

I will venture to say that anybody who proclaims not to like like Wagner's music has just not given it enough time to work on them. Unless you are well acquainted with classical music, this is not the kind of music that will thrill you on first listen.

In fact, it has taken me literally years to fully absorb and appreciate the music of Wagner. But with each listen, it grows on me a bit more and it gets less "boring" with each listen.

For novices, I would start with Das Rheingold (the beginning of the Ring cycle) and then Die Walkure (the second part of the ring) and listen to them dozens of times before starting to explore further.