Enthusiasm for the operas of composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) flourished in fin-de-si cle France, fed by fascination for the medieval history and literature that inspired his work. By the 1890s, "pilgrimages" to Wagner's burial city of Bayreuth, Germany, home of a regular festival of his work, were a rite of passage for musicians and the upper crust. French admirers promoted Wagner's ideas in journals such as La Revue wagn rienne, launched in 1885...