In spite of growing interest in the songs of Hugo Wolf, there is still a lack of serious critical discussion of the nature of his achievements, in particular his relationship to Richard Wagner. Wolf has been regarded as a composer who followed the style and aesthetics of Wagnerian music drama without question, while writing in a genre often seen as less challenging than the symphony or opera. This book re-examines the evidence concerning Wolf’s responses to Wagner and Wagnerism and suggests ways in which he voiced his criticism through song, and his one completed opera Der Corregidor. This opens up new insights into the kind of impact Wagner had on those following in his wake, and into the complexity and subtlety of the late nineteenth-century Lied. From this perspective, Wolf emerges as a persuasive and articulate figure, of wider musical and artistic significance than has yet been recognised.