Tuesday July 26, 2011

I've Been Thinking:

Today the Israel Chamber Orchestra will perform Wagner. The piece, Siegfried Idyll, was not even rehearsed in Israel. It was rehearsed on Sunday in Bayreuth, Germany and will be performed there today, at an annual Wagner festival. This is a first.

There have been attempts to play Wagner in Israel and even successes. In 2001 at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem Wagner was played - but not by an official Israeli orchestra.

The issue comes up often. The debate ensues. Should an Israeli orchestra play Wagner?

Wagner was a rabid anti-Semite. His essay entitled Jews in Music is a classic work of anti-Semitism. It became one of the most read anti-Semitic works of the day alongside the works of Wilhelm Marr and Edouard Drumont. Wagner's daughter married one of the greatest theoretical anti-Semites of the era named Houston Stewart Chamberlain.

Hitler loved Wagner and played his music constantly - even playing it while Jews were marched off to the gas chambers. When it comes to Wagner, Israelis and Holocaust survivors are very sensitive. And indeed, the official policy of Israel since Kristallnacht is not to play Wagner.

Roberto Paternostro, conductor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra, is one of the exceptions. The child of holocaust survivors, he wants to play the music of Wagner.

The question is not just whether wounds have healed and whether enough time has passed.

The question is one of principle.

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