Klarinet Archive - Posting 000387.txt from 2004/01

From: "Joseph Wakeling" <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wagner
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 14:10:52 -0500

<< But, what if Wagner had been alive and writing the music fresh in 1939,
or 2004? >>

Well, part of the problem with Wagner is that he didn't just write music.
He wrote a lot of prose as well, and this is really virulently
anti-semitic---horrifyingly so. And then you have the Nazis taking up his
music as the supreme example of German art.

But if Wagner had written only the music, not the words, would anyone have
realised that there were anti-semitic stereotypes in his operas? Barenboim
makes a good point, which is that if Wagner really had wanted to express his
anti-semitic views in his operas, he would have done so explicitly and
created a Jewish character. The fact that he didn't ... ?

-- Joe

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