Klarinet Archive - Posting 000359.txt from 1998/12

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wagner's Ring again
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 07:28:36 -0500

Dear Lisa et al.:
it is perfectly possib;e to listen to Wagner and/or see his works staged
without being conscious of his anti-Semitism. I think this is a reasonable
justification for so doing - providing his music is actually to your
taste.
Roger Shilcock

On Fri, 4 Dec 1998, Lisa Clayton wrote:

> Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 10:44:32 -0800
> From: Lisa Clayton <lisakc@-----.com>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Wagner's Ring again
>
> At 12:52 PM 12.04.98 -0500, mgustav wrote:
> >I do understand your premise. However, I do not find the message. The myths
> >that Wagner created are based on his collecting and remaking of myths, his
> >interpretation of ancient myths. But we bring to myths our own
> interpretation
> >(Freud) there is no preexisting and set meaning of a myth. If you view
> >Wagner's operas this way, it is because that is what you want them to mean
> >regardless as to what Wagner saw. Joseph Campbell offers great insight into
> >this area and consequently he is labeled as a racist and anti-Semite which he
> >found to be irrational.
>
> Hm. I could interpret this to mean that Wagner's operas can and should be
> divorced from his life, his beliefs and the historical era he was a part
> of. Wagner purposely remade these myths to reflect his anti-semitism--
> your argument states that the viewer can re-interpret Wagner's
> re-interpretation in whatever way he or she pleases, history be damned.
> That doesn't make sense, and I don't think even Joseph Campbell would make
> that claim. Wagner purposefully and consciously chose to insert his
> anti-semitism into his reinterpretations. How is that different from, say,
> D.W. Griffiths imposing his racism on his interpretation of American
> history in "Birth of a Nation"? Could any educated modern audience member
> watch that and not think that his interpretation of history is fundametally
> flawed? Same thing for Wagner-- you have to understand the anti-Semitism
> behind his characterizations before you can truly understand his
> re-interpretation. It's one thing to re-interpret myth for our own
> personal and cultural needs (and just to be deliciously Satanic, I think
> that the very low-brow but fun TV series _Xena: Warrior Princess_ is a
> great example of this) but it is very much another thing to consciously
> ignore the history and politics around these re-interpretations.
>
> Lisa Clayton
> clayton@-----.edu
>
>
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>
>

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