 Walpole was a keen music lover and when in 1920 he heard a new tenor at the <unk> he was much impressed and sought him out . <unk> Melchior became one of the most important friendships of his life , and Walpole did much to foster the singer 's budding career . Wagner 's son Siegfried engaged Melchior for the Bayreuth Festival in 1924 and succeeding years . Walpole attended , and met Adolf Hitler , then recently released from prison after an attempted putsch . Hitler was a protégé of Siegfried 's wife <unk> , and was known in Bayreuth as " one of <unk> 's lame ducks . " Walpole later admitted that he had both despised and liked him – " both emotions that time has proved I was wrong to indulge " . This and future visits to Bayreuth were complicated by the fact that <unk> Wagner fell in love with Walpole , and attached herself so firmly to him that rumours began to spread . 
