JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

258 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 3:243
a symposium entitled “Wagner: An Artist or a Symbol” was being held.
Sponsored by the New Israel Opera (NIO) and attended by the composer’s
great-grandson, Dr. Gottfried Wagner, the discussion pitted Zalman Shoval,
chairman of the NIO’s board, against Asher Fisch, NIO music director, who
wished to perform Wagner’s operas in Israel. When Fisch, on piano, tried to
accompany a baritone in a monologue from The Flying Dutchman, dozens
of people left the hall in protest, shouting, “This is unthinkable!,” “Rape!,”
and “In the name of culture, you are patronizing everyone!”
For many music lovers, the emotions associated with the performance
of Wagner’s music have a built-in safety valve, invoked with variations of
the following statement of justification: “Certainly Wagner was an
antisemite. However, Schubert’s alleged pedophilia does not change my
perspective of his music’s beauty, nor does Mozart’s scatology, Beethoven’s
poor hygiene, Delius’s sexual promiscuity, or Grainger’s whipping
fetish. Besides, other composers also held loathsome antisemitic views. So,
despite Wagner’s offensive declarations, his opinions are irrelevant to an
admiration of his music, and one must not permit his abhorrent personal
creed to be an impediment to an appreciation of his musical genius.”
Yet, in 2010, the intended action of the Israeli Chamber Orchestra has
resurrected a debate over whether it is appropriate for an Israeli orchestra to
play the music of Richard Wagner, and in Germany no less. It seems that
Katherina Wagner, the German composer’s great-granddaughter, sought to
visit Israel to formally invite the Cameri Israeli Chamber Orchestra to inaugurate
the 2010 Bayreuth Festival in Germany—an annual event promoting
Wagner’s music. But when her intentions were leaked to the media, a maelstrom
of anger arose and she canceled her visit. Later, the Cameri
announced its intentions to perform at a venue other than the Bayreuth
Festpielhaus—as if that changes the picture—and it would neither rehearse
nor play Wagner’s music in Israel. For an Israeli orchestra to actually go to
Germany to perform Wagner’s works in Bayreuth, where the Nazis glorified
him, is both a disgrace and a public humiliation.
For those opposed to the playing of Wagner’s music in Israel, the situation
became more uncertain when the Israeli government approved the creation
of an Israeli Wagner Society, which has been accepted into the
International Association of Wagner Societies.
The new association will be headed by an Israeli lawyer, Yonatan
Livni, who said, “It’s time to allow those who desire to hear Wagner’s
music in Israel to be able to do so . . . Karl Orff, and even Richard Strauss,
who was president of the Reich’s State Music Bureau, are played in Israel.
So why is it prohibited to play Wagner, who died years before the Nazis
came to power? This boycott no longer makes sense.”