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zerospinboson - your perspective has merit, but I disagree. I am of the opinion that Beethoven was a far greater composer than Wagner. You are right that instrumental music is fairly different than vocal music. Beethoven's overwhelming influence on instrumental music continued for many decades after his death.
On the other hand - I don't think anyone can doubt that Wagner was the most influential opera composer of at least the second half of his century. And, as this discussion illustrates, Wagner's influence spread far beyond the world of music. He had enormous influence on literature, and even on philosophy and culture generally. For example, I think the atmosphere he created influenced Freud and his school. So I continue to maintain that the fusion of music and literature embodied in the enormous expanse of the four Ring operas (something like twenty hours of music and drama) is very likely the most influential work of art (any kind of art) of its century.
Harry is, of course, right about the Niebelunglied. Other important influences were the Volsunga Saga and, I think, the Lesser Edda. One interesting point is that the dwarf Alberich, probably the principal baddie in the Ring Cycle, is essentially the same as Oberon, king of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream [By way of the french - Alberich in German became Alberon in French, became Oberon in English].
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