Listen Now: Wagner Through a Jewish Lens

Source: The Jewish Community Centre Of San Francisco


Wagner Through a Jewish Lens—The Enigma of Wagner’s Genius and Anti-Semitism
With Deborah Lipstadt, Randy Cohen and Joshua Kosman

A very insightful and highly interesting panel discussion. I believe, in part, stimulated by SF Opera new Ring Cycle.

Podcast: Click to Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:42 — 25.5MB)

Overview from JWeekly.com 

He warned of the “harmful influence of Jewry on the morality of the [German] nation,” and that “the Jew has no true passion to impel him to artistic creation.”

That wasn’t Hitler at some torch-lit Nuremberg rally. It was composer Richard Wagner, writing 80 years before the advent of Nazism.

Richard WagnerNo artist stirs up as much Jewish unease as Wagner. To this day, the very thought of his music causes some Jews, especially Holocaust survivors, intense stress.

Yet Wagner was by all reckoning one of the great creative geniuses of all time.

With next month’s opening of the San Francisco Opera’s production of the Ring cycle — the epic four-part, 15-hour “Der Ring des Nibelungen” — the sturm und drang over Wagner will get an airing at a Thursday, May 26 panel discussion at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.

Titled “Wagner Through a Jewish Lens: The Enigma of Wagner’s Genius and Anti-Semitism,” the discussion features historian Deborah Lipstadt, former New York Times columnist Randy Cohen and moderator Joshua Kosman, the classical music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The problem is deceptively simple,” says Kosman of the panel’s topic. “[Wagner] left this unbelievable artistic legacy that cannot and should not be denied, and which has enriched the cultural world for 150 years.”

But, he adds, “he also had a host of amoral political and personal views that many would find repugnant today. Furthermore, his ideas then came to a certain ugly fruition after he was dead.”

That “ugly fruition” was, of course, the Nazi co-option of Wagner’s music as the soundtrack to a reborn Teutonic nationalism, subsequently perverted into the Holocaust.

For Hitler’s Germany, the ride of the Valkyries went right past the smokestacks of Auschwitz.

With the Ring, Wagner invented what he called the music drama, an outsized blend of theater, music, singing and spectacle. Its influence on all subsequent music and opera cannot be denied, yet the use of his music by the image-conscious Nazis twisted it into an aural symbol of genocide.

Kosman notes that for Holocaust-era Jews, “Wagner’s music was used as a symbol for terror. It’s a musical swastika, a totem for a very specific historical event. But it doesn’t follow from that that Wagner was a Nazi before his time or that we can blame the crimes of Hitler on Wagner. Certainly not on Wagner’s music.”

Former New York Times ethics columnist Cohen has pondered the ethical dilemma surrounding Wagner. It comes down to this: Can one separate the art from the artist? Or, in Wagner’s case, do the artist’s vile beliefs taint the music itself?

“The librettos themselves contain symbols that were understood to be anti-Semitic,” Cohen says of the four operas that make up the Ring cycle. “There can’t be anti-Semitic math. There can’t be anti-Semitic physics. But when it comes to opera, the answer is yes, there can be.”

Many scholars agree that the loathsome dwarfish race of the Nibelung depicted in the Ring represent the Jews.

On the other hand, Cohen concedes that Wagner was a product of his times, which in the case of 19th century Germany meant a period of virulent anti-Jewish hatred. Similarly, 20th century German composers such as Richard Strauss and Carl Orff openly worked for or belonged to the Nazi Party.

Yet nobody calls for boycotts of Orff’s “Carmina Burana.”

“Must you forswear participating in a work [of art] if the creator of that work is a truly vile person? “ Cohen asks. “I believe the answer is no, but it is a reasonable question. What moral standing must you give to people who have a close connection to the Holocaust? [Wagner’s] music is so imbued with suffering and death and tragedy.”

While fully acknowledging the dark side of Wagner, both the man and the music, critic Kosman can’t help but love the aesthetic power of the Ring.

“The more I get to know Wagner and the cycle, the more I am in awe of it,” he says, “of its majesty and depth and great theatrical fervor. It is long, yes, but there is no flab, nothing in the Ring you could cut.”

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Dresden exhibition sheds light on Nazi persecution in the theater

Source: http://www.dw-world.de

Note: You might also, if you haven't already, check out Enrique Sanchez Lansch's extraordinary,  often depressing,  frequently uncomfortable and profoundly disturbing: "The Reichsorchester: The Berlin Philharmonic". Trailer below::

The Semperoper dismissed accomplished
 musicians for their opposition to the Nazis

The impact of Nazi "cleansing" policies on Germany's opera houses and theaters has largely been left unstudied - until now. An in-depth look at persecution of artists, musicians and actors is on display in Dresden.

"Decent behavior is even more important than making good music," Fritz Busch, a prominent conductor and musical director of the Saxon State Opera during his life, once said.

Busch was not a Jew, but he was opposed to Nazi ideology. This attitude resulted in his dismissal in 1933, five weeks after Hitler's rise to power. His story is one of the most well-known among 50 others that make up the current exhibition "Silenced Voices," which deals with the expulsion of Jews from the opera and theater scene between 1933 and 1945.

For the last five years, historian Hannes Heer and music scholar Jürgen Kesting have been dedicated to researching the project. Initially on the request of the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper and the Hamburg State Opera, they started investigating the stories of Jewish and "politically untouchable" artists that worked in German theaters during the Third Reich. One of the sources of information they are using is biographies of prominent composers, conductors, directors and singers, as well as the stories of expulsion from various theaters.

One part of the exhibition documents the fate of 44 prominent composers, directors, singers, and actors - the victims of racist Nazi politics. Another section specifically deals with the expulsion of members of the Semperoper and the Dresden State Theater. A labyrinth of columns and billboards in the foyers of both houses helps to emphasize the dismal nature of these people's fates. Descriptions and photos present well-known and not-so-well-known artists, choir and orchestra members, artisans and stagehands. Visitors can also listen to musical extracts.

The 'threat' of contemporary art

In a detailed catalog, Hannes Heer discusses the source of anti-Jewish sentiments in Germany after 1918. The German Empire had gone through a political change following World War 1, when it became a federal republic. At this time, German culture - described by some as the best and the most beautiful of all - was seen as the only unifying aspect that could be used to forge a new national identity. This automatically excluded all modern artistic movements, which in turn forced theaters to give up on artistic experiments and contemporary works. The new, compulsory focus was on the canons of culture.

One of the goals of this national stance was to convey the message that it was Jews who were to blame for the revolution, for the defeat in World War II and for economic troubles. A "security scale" was devised with regard to theaters and operas, indicating which institutions had the most subversive tendencies. Berlin was at the top of the list, as it was traditionally open to all modern influences, but avant-garde theaters such as those in Leipzig and Darmstadt were also being monitored.

Drastic methods

The propaganda was spread in a very direct manner, including methods like stink bombs and chanting to prevent certain performances from taking place. There were also press campaigns against specific individuals, as well as those that called for the resignation of certain directors and those that aimed to influence operatic and theatrical repertoires.

Hannes Heer and Jürgen Kesting have made an important step forward in their research work in Dresden. For the first time, documents have been uncovered that prove that prisoners of war had worked at the opera house.

"We have made quite a sensational discovery in Dresden," said Heer. "It is personal journals that contain names and where people came from. From 1941 onwards, a large number of musicians and stagehands were foreign workers."

The Semperoper and Dresden State Theater invite visitors to discover the context of the historical events connected with the expulsion of Jews from the city's cultural scene. Lectures, films and cultural presentations complete the program on offer. A CD documentary gives the sound back to those "silenced voices."

The voice of Fritz Busch was never fully silenced, however. After his dismissal from the Semperoper he went on to work in South America, Scandinavia, England and New York. In 1935, he wrote in a letter to the mother of his deceased friend Max Reger: "What counts is that today I can make the most beautiful music and have remained a free person and can serve my fatherland better in this way than in others."

Although not Jewish, Fritz Busch
 was forced out of his job

The "Silenced Voices" exhibition runs at the Semperoper and the Dresden State Theater until July 13.

Author: Gudrun Stegen

More: www.semperoper.de - Silenced Voices

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