Re: Barenboim and Wagner

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Responding to the message of <e8(dot)176e485a(dot)287ed65e (at) aol(dot)com>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> 
> --part1_e8.176e485a.287ed65e_boundary
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> 
> For the most part, I agree with Yoel's points.  Wagner is not such a black 
> and white issue for me.  I can't stand his music, personally, but my father 
> (a Buchenwald survivor) was a great fan of his.  He saw the Ring at Bayreuth 
> and the whole nine yards.  My father's contention was that Wagner's 
> anti-semitic reputation was really due to his wife, Cosima's work in revising 
> 
> his reputation after his death.  My father said that Wagner's favorite 
> conductor was a Jew.  I have been told that this argument doesn't really hold 
> 
> up to modern information, but that's what he believed.
> 
> So while I agree that Baremboim was wrong in breaking his agreement not to 
> perform Wagner -- those who choose not to hear it shouldn't have to -- the 
> idea of cultural censorship more offensive to me that Wagner is.
> 
Wagner was a bright man and thus complex, but there's no way to excuse his 
anti-Semitism.  He was the author of 'Jewishness in Music' (forgive me, my 
German grammar is so rusty I don't want to embarrass myself with the original 
title), a definitely anti-Semitic tome.  And yes, his favorite conductor was a 
Jew, Hermann Levi.  He wanted Levi baptized before he conducted the premiere of 
his last (and very Christian) opera, Parsifal.  When Levi refused, Wagner 
offered to baptize him himself (unofficially, as Wagner had no credentials for 
this other than a huge ego).  Levi again refused, but he did conduct the 
premiere.  He was the best around and Wagner, as an unprincipled opportunist, 
violated his own (anti-Semitic) principles in order to get the best possible 
performance.  BTW, one of the things we learn from this story is that it was 
possible for a Jew to have a career in those days without being baptized, 
although it seems only the gutsiest Jews, like Levi, took the hard road of 
keeping the faith.  I suppose someone could find fault in his working with 
Wagner, but I think that making Wagner eat crow in this way was just fine.

Unlike Jeff, my folks aren't survivors, but they love Wagner and think it should
stand on its merits, as a lot of Jewish musicians have.  Wagner has a number of 
descendants who have in a sense rehabilitated the music by being entirely 
upfront about the anti-Semitism and participating in forums that lay that on the
table.  One such descendant (great-grandson, I think), Gottfried Wagner has 
collaborated Steve Feinstein, the director of the U of MN's Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies.

I agree that Barenboim handled this badly.  Obviously, there was some 
cooperation from the orchestra.  I'm not keen on censorship either, but I can 
certainly see why Israeli concertgoers should be well-informed about upcoming 
Wagner (or Strauss or Orff or Public Enemy) events.



Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+