Klarinet Archive - Posting 000047.txt from 2007/05

From: Audrey Travis <clr91nt@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: [kl] SV: Orff, Wagner and Nazi's
Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 10:13:48 -0400

Those interested in understanding the historical background behind the
thinking of both Wagner and Hitler might want to read a book entitled
"The War Against the Jews" 1939 - 1945" by Lucy Davidovitch. Hitler's
thinking was not an aberration of history, but part of a long standing
and well entrenched culture in the regions of Austria and Germany.
Still, one cannot know for certain what Wagner may have done during the
Holocaust.

Audrey
On 7-May-07, at 7:41 AM, dnleeson wrote:

> It is an exercize in futility to argue if Wagner would have
> behaved similiarly during the Nazi regime. There is no way to
> conclude on that attempt at a historical contrast.
>
> But, Paolo Leva is incorrect when he wrote: "[Wagner] never
> preached violence in a way even close to what Nazi did." That is
> not the case.
>
> Wagner explcitly offered a proposal that all Jews should be
> forced to commit suicide during a performance of "Isaac the
> Wise." That was a play that had become popular during that period
> in which the character of the Jew, Isaac, was shown in a
> non-demonizing way.
>
> That attitude can be seen in no other light thatn preaching
> violence.
>
> And while antisemitism was a plague then (and is to, perhaps, an
> ever greater degree of a plague today in the Muslim world),
> Wagner was the only composer who incorporated his hatred as part
> and parcel of his music dramas. He disguised his bigotry because
> he did not want his operas to be seen as political pamphlets, but
> his greatest masterpieces, "Meistersinger," three of the four
> operas in "The Ring," and others, are rife with his toxic
> thinking.
>

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