Was he really a better writer of operas than Verdi? It doesn't matter. Like Mark Twain is supposed to have said, Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
There's a lot to be said for Verdi, but it's hard to go up against the myths that Wagner created -- about himself as much as about the Nibelungen or Tristan and Isolde.
Edgar Wilson ‘Bill’ Nye:
The peculiar characteristic of
classical music is that it is really
better than it sounds.
A stand-up line quoted in
1888.
Variant: Wagner’s music is
better than it sounds.
(Attested in an obituary)
From Wiki Quote