The Ring of Myths by Na'ama Sheffi, the editor of Zmanim (Time), the historical quarterly of Tel Aviv University, is a book well worth reading.
Just as ironic is that to justify the retaliative rape of Wagner's liberal art, as well earned pay-back for the Holocaust, his persecutors have had to become fanatical apologists for Hitler's bizarre interpretations of Wagner in order to justify this continual repeat rape. Anyone who dares to dismiss Hitler's views as that of an ill informed madman, themselves come under vicious attack for daring to question the supreme authority of the Führer, whose views are elevated to some sort of Sacred Dogma. Never has Hitler enjoyed the support of so many Jews. Sadly, in this orgy of hatred, fuelled by a high-horsed rampage of vindictive self-righteousness, these malevolent witch hunters increasingly start to resemble the bad guys they purport to be persecuting.
Unfortunately, the mob of voices exploding with irrational hatred, addicted to the orgasmic catharsis of unleashing their most violent emotions against Wagner under the false pretence of justice, are shouting the loudest, and their views will dominate this field for many decades to come. The voice of reason is being drowned out for now, but it can still just be heard speaking amid the dim.
The following is my translation of an interview from around about the time of the publication of the book. It appeared in 2001 in the German magazine, Die Welt, and is available online in the original German.
It first appeared Tuesday, 29. May 2001 Berlin, "DIE WELT" Feuilliton section, and provides a good background to the genesis of the book:
Er wird als Symbol instrumentalisiert
He is being Manipulated as a Symbol
For weeks Israel has been debating over the question as to whether Daniel Baremboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin should be allowed to play Act One of Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre" in the context of the Israel Festival. State president Moshe Katsav and the Educational Committee of the parliament are appealing to the festival management to reconsider their position in order not to "hurt the feelings of millions of Jews worldwide" (Katsav). The director of the festival Micha Levinson objects that the board of directors of the festival, "amongst whom include survivors of the Holocaust", support this decision with majority support. In order not to force the controversial composer onto music lovers the Staatskapelle will only play Wagner in the third concert. "The Ring of Myths - the Israelis, Wagner and the Nazis" is the title of the study that the historian Na'ama Sheffi of the University of Tel Aviv has published concerning the background of the controversy.
DIE WELT: Even though the Israelis already have enough conflict on their hands, they have been fighting about Richard Wagner for 60 years. Is it the composer or his works that are at issue?
Na'ama Sheffi: Wagner is accepted with such difficulty because he is being manipulated as the symbol of National Socialism and the memory of the holocaust. Therefore his anti-Semitic comments and their influence on the National Socialist regime, however ill defined, have been very much exaggerated.
DIE WELT: However difficult it is to separate art and politics in Israel, there proves to be the example of the conductor Arturo Toscanini, the founder of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv.
Sheffi: When Hitler invited him in 1933 to the Bayreuth Festival, Toscanini declined the invitation because he saw in it the misuse of culture by politics. For the same reason, he left Mussolini's Italy, and in 1936 founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of Israel in Tel Aviv. In those days, Wagner was popular here as part of German culture, least of all amongst the musicians who originated from German cultural circles. And so it was quite natural that the Jewish orchestra should play Wagner's compositions twice in 1938. On the program of the Gala Concerts on the 12th of November 1938 the Italian maestro included Wagner's [Prelude to the] "Meistersinger".
DIE WELT: Which was cancelled on account of the Reichskristallnacht [the Imperial Crystal Night].
Sheffi: Coincidentally the pogrom took place three days before this first concert. A member of the board of trustees appealed to Toscanini to take into consideration the feelings of the listeners, the majority of whom had emigrated from Europe. Toscanini took the plea into account even though they ran contrary to his views. Instead of Wagner Carl Maria von Weber was played. The issue was not that of Germany but specifically that of Wagner.
DIE WELT: And nor was it even about a Wagner boycott...
Sheffi: . . . That came much later. In February 1939 the same musicians played Wagner on a tour of Egypt. A year later a few of his epigrams appeared in the journal of the Israeli National Theatre Habimah.
DIE WELT: The young Jewish state not only banned Wagner but also others such as Richard Strauss and Carl Orff, musicians such as Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan, and even the German language.
Sheffi: In 1950 a British singer wanted to sing Goethe-Lieder set to music by Schubert. Thereupon the censorship authorities banned the appearance of the German language, including film. The ban, which was never particularly strongly upheld anyway, was lifted first in 1963.
DIE WELT: Shortly before the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of German in 1965.
Sheffi: The cultural sector long constituted a kind of antithesis to the official political relations. Israel needed the goal of reconciliation and the diplomatic ties for practical reasons, but the Israelis had not forgiven the Germans. This stance was maintained within cultural circles for a long time.
DIE WELT: Significantly the first big Wagner debates arose in Israel in 1966.
Sheffi: The Nazi victims in Israel were divided amongst those who wanted nothing to do with Germany, the majority of whom did not originate from Germany, and the others, the majority of whom were German Jews, who despite their persecution, accepted German culture and even Wagner.
DIE WELT: When Zubin Mehta conducted Wagner's Liebestod" in 1981 the later parliamentary president Dov Shilanski demanded that he "go back to India".
Sheffi: For one Mehta was the first to have conducted Wagner in Israel, but the other fact was that the right oriented and traditionally anti-German Likud bloc ruled at the time. In addition to that the minister president Menachem Begin was conducting a battle of words with Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, after Schmidt emphasised the special German responsibility towards the Palestinians. As a reaction to the attack the Israeli Philharmonic named Mehta as their lifelong musical director.
DIE WELT: On October 2000 Mendi Rodan, the conductor of the Rishon Letzion Symphony Orchestra played Wagner for the first time. The protest was limited perhaps because Wagner's music could be heard on Classical Radio or because the Holocaust survivors are dying out.
Sheffi: The Israelis have much greater worries than Germany - the internal politics. In addition ever more Israelis recognise that the Holocaust need not be forgotten without having to yell: "we hate the Germans".
DIE WELT: In your opinion should Wagner be played?
Sheffi: We complain that the Germans threw out very important Jewish cultural icons. They burnt books and chased Jews out of the universities. And now the Israelis come along and do something very similar. We should not forget where such cultural boycotts could lead
For a general Wagner bibliography, including this book, I can strongly recommend the following website:
http://www.monsalvat.no/booksfaq.htm
For a more detailed critique of Nazi opera conspiracies theories please see my in-depth review of Joachim Köhler's book Wagner's Hitler: the Prophet and his Disciple.
Also of value might be my two part series overviewing the concept behind Nazi opera conspiracies:
Nazi Opera Conspiracies: a Right-Wing Rewriting of History
Lying About Hitler: Why Historians Reject Nazi Opera Conspiracies—and Why We Must Follow their Example
No comments:
Post a Comment