Re: Wagner, again

[JeffSchan <JeffSchan...>]

Wagner has always been an interesting question to me.  I can't stand the
man's music myself, however my father, who was a Buchenwald survivor, loved
it.  He maintained that Wagner himself was not an anti-Semite.  His argument
was that Wagner's wife, Cosima (Liszt's daughter), was a vicious anti-Semite
and engaged in some serious historical revisionism after her husband died
(therefore it does not surprise me that Hitler was a guest at their home).
 Another argument of his was that Wagner's favorite conductor was a Jew.  I
don't remember all of his proofs for his views, but my wife, who has a Ph.D.
in music, told me that my father's argument was very plausible.  I'd be more
than happy to dismiss Wagner as anti-Semitic trash, but in honor of my
father, I merely hate his music.

Jeffrey Schanzer