When Richard Faltin met Wagner in Bayreuth in 1876 and told him about the sporadic attempts to perform the master's music in Finland, Wagner answered politely: “Oh, you should rather come to Bayreuth! I am happy, however, that there are people up there who like my music.” Finland, like the whole Baltic world, was “up there,” far away from the Europe in which Wagner particularly wanted to succeed. In 1876, the center of everything was Bayreuth: Wagner undoubtedly wished to promote this centralized worldview of Wagnerism and hoped that his disciples and followers would support his venture both intellectually and financially. Early in his career Wagner had already realized that the performance of his works required sizable investments, such that only large and established opera houses could fulfill the demanding prerequisites. Thus, when he was leaving Livonia in 1839, Wagner had surmised that the remote city of Riga could never be an arena for his works. As an opera composer, Wagner accordingly did not work to ease the spread of his works by giving consideration to the conditions prevailing in the opera world: he forged his works for the future. Perhaps Wagner's somewhat cynical comment to Faltin refers simply to the fact that in 1876 Bayreuth was the only place in which performances satisfying Wagner's requirements could be produced.

Wagner was by no means unconcerned about the Baltic world. When making preparations for the Bayreuth festival in 1874, he had even turned to the Royal Opera in Stockholm to ask for help. Contrary to his assumption in the 1830s, Riga became an especially important Wagner center, even from a Europe-wide perspective. Riga was also the residence of Carl Friedrich Glasenapp, whose work in transmitting the Wagner image and recording Wagner knowledge was crucial.

Reactions to Richard Wagner's ideas and output in the Baltic world have been the main topic of this study. It seems clear that the Baltic Sea region and German culture were in close interaction throughout the period investigated. The participants in this negotiation were not at all mutually unreachable, despite the geographical distances between them. Information moved quickly and, typically for the period, newspapers copied items from other newspapers. The press frequently dealt with Wagner's artistic plans as well as his biographical vicissitudes.