Re: Edward Said, Daniel BArenboim

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

If you read Naama's article, you'd see that the situation is a good deal more
nuanced than what you describe and that there are places where Wagner is still
banned or controversial.  It's a complex issue, not a non-issue, but you seem
not to have been exposed to some of the complexities.  BTW, I'm aware of
everything you've told me here.

Shana Tova,



givas (at) comcast(dot)net wrote:

> Dear Prof. Lubert
> The ongoing discussion re Richard Wagner and performances in Israel is
> really a non-issue.  When I went to the Tower Record Shop on Hillel Street
> in Jerusalem this past June, they stocked no music written by Israeli
> composers.  However, they had a whole section of music conducted by Herbert
> von Karajan who joined the Austrian Nazi party in 1933 and the German Nazi
> Party in 1939.  One of their best selling recordings is Carmina Burana by
> Carl Orff who was Dr. Goebbels favorite living composers.  When I was in the
> Opera House in Tel Aviv and visited the record shops, they did not have a
> recording of the opera commissioned  to open the opera, 'Joseph' by a
> composer named Joseph Tal.  However they had all the recorded operas of
> Richard Wagner and the best seller was Tristan and Isolde conducted by
> Furtwangler and sung by Flagstad... Sincerely  Ed Eisen
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alex J. Lubet" <lubet001 (at) umn(dot)edu>
> To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 8:32 AM
> Subject: Re: Edward Said, Daniel BArenboim
>
> > What makes their coverage of Jewish music a 'non-issue'?  What makes this
> > thread 'flailing'?
> >
> > BTW, among those of us who do work around Wagner's anti-Semitism,
> Barenboim
> > has quite a reputation as an apologist.  In Israel (according to Naama
> > Sheffi, an Israeli historian who has an essay on Wagner in Israel in the
> book
> > I'm editing), he has a reputation for making a larger claim of Israeli
> > identity than he deserves and using it only to criticize Israel in ways
> that
> > even a leftist like my colleague Naama find disturbing.  I don't suppose
> this
> > negates this project with Said (there have been others), but it goes on
> the
> > balance with everything else, a lot of which doesn't provoke the senses in
> a
> > positive way.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Judith R Cohen wrote:
> >
> > > Speaking of the New York Times (and truly, I think their coverage or
> > > non-coverage of Jewish music is pretty much a non-issue, though I expect
> > > it will be flailed about here for a while); anyway, speaking of the NYT,
> > > their obit of Edward Said
> > > http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/obituaries/25CND-SAID.html?hp
> > >
> > > - like other obituaries I've seen so far - omits his  recent (1999)
> > > collaboration with Daniel Barenboim, creating an orchestra , The East
> > > West Divan, of talented young Israeli and Arab musicians. It was based
> > > in Seville this past year,  and received a lot of very POSITIVE
> > > attention in the Spansh press, in fact won the prestifious Prince of
> > > Asturias prize, at a time when coverage of anything Jewish was anything
> > > but positive. So, whatever else one feels about his writings and
> > > activities, I think this work with Barenboim was fantastic.
> > > among other places, read Barenboim and Said's comments at:
> > >
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/2003-September/010061.html
> > >
> > > Judith
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
> > Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music and Jewish Studies
> > Adjunct Professor of American Studies
> > University of Minnesota
> > 2106 4th St. S
> > Minneapolis, MN 55455
> > 612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

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


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