Klarinet Archive - Posting 000016.txt from 1998/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Wager (and the Ring)
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 15:08:55 -0400

Roger asks for a better explanation of the specific antisemitic elements
found in the ring. Reasonable question.

In the ring, there are two classes of characters. There is the "volk"
and the "other." The characterization of the "other" is constantly
a collection medieval antisemitic beliefs. Let me give you just one,
for it would take a VERY long message to describe them all.

One characteristic of the "other" is that they have a smell, a disgusting
odor. Mime, for example, has a foul sulpherous smell. Reference is
made to it almost every time that he appears. Wagner wanted to
waft sulpherous fumes to the audience in his productions but it was
impractical for the times.

This coded message is based on the medieval superstition of the
"Feotor Judaicus" or "The Jewish stink" which was presumed to
surround every Jew and its existence was as punishment for the
rejection of Jesus. On the other hand the "volk" have an odor
of sanctity.

The origin of the feotor Judaicus and the suggested ways in which
Jews were thought to rid themselves of it is particularly disgusting
because it involves the accusation that Jews killed Christian
children in order to drink their blood which acted as an agent to
free themselves of the stink. Conversion to Christianity was another
suggested way in which the smell could be eliminated. Supposedly,
Jews drank this blood at Passover as well as mixing it in their
holiday cakes. Martin Luther made several references to the
imbecility of this accusation but it survived him by several hundred
years, and still exists in parts of the world today.

You really have to know history and medieval myths to see how Wagner
incorporates them into the various elements of his music dramas.
And today, we are no longer sensitive to what was, in Wagner's time,
these coded references.

Any single person at a Wagner opera given in his lifetime would have
immediately interpreted the bad smell of any of the "other" as a
clear indication of the "Feotor Judaicus." Everyone knew who and
what he was talking about.

Other references in the Ring deal with issues of Jews having feet of
goats, poor vision, and bad speech. There is also a big piece of
the Ring that is devoted to the dangers of race mixing. And finally,
there is a continual reference to castration which is confused
with circumcision by the selection of the high pitched voices
of the "other" whereas the "volk" have heroic voices.

There is a great deal more if you are interested. Read, "Richard
Wagner and the Antisemitic Imagination" or "Wagner: Race and Reason."

I would not have brought up these specifics if Roger had not asked,
because it is not entirely seemly to speak of their details, so
disgusting do they become.

=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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