 On 13 March 1861 Bizet attended the Paris premiere of Wagner 's opera Tannhäuser , a performance greeted by audience riots that were stage @-@ managed by the influential Jockey @-@ Club de Paris . Despite this distraction , Bizet revised his opinions of Wagner 's music , which he had previously dismissed as merely eccentric . He now declared Wagner " above and beyond all living composers " . Thereafter , accusations of " Wagnerism " were often laid against Bizet , throughout his compositional career . 
