The Ring Part 2 – Dealing with Wagner’s Anti Semitism

When does the moral repugnance of an artist or scientist or musician disqualify one from enjoying their work???

2013 marks the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner. During November and December 2013, Opera Australia (OA) is performing complete cycles of the four blood stained operas which make up his epic vision – the Ring Cycle.  It was booked out a year ago even though it cost well over a grand and is 17 hours of not very tuneful dirges.

As you may know from my last blog, I was part of cut down, sawn up version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle for the Opera Australia Ring Festival.  It was for a cut opera company called Emotionworks.  As part of OA’s Ring Festival, Emotionworks performed all four enormous works in one hour as rock icons and gods of the late twentieth century.  This is cut opera at its most condensed.  It was really dense.   For my sins, I was Garry Glitter playing the murderous thug Hunding – a complete bastard playing a prick of a bastard.  The pictures below tell the tale of how we adulterated and butchered this endless work of 17 hours of operatic madness.  

Our performance was very true to the original Wagnerian conception.

Sadly its brilliant creator was a virulent anti-Semite.  He was a prolific writer which included his essay “Das Judenthum in der Musik”, (Jewishness in Music), a nasty view on the influence of Jews in German culture and society at that time.   There is no doubt that essay “Jewishness in Music” will taint his reputation forever.  The evidence of his anti-Semitism is undeniable.  Moreover, there are suggestions of a sort of Aryan style racism emerging later in his life.

One can never be too earnest in one's operatic adventures

But Wagner’s main sins occurred after his death.  His music was appropriated to be an iconic part of Nazi ritual.  The Die Meistersinger (Overture) was chosen by Hitler to open the Nuremberg rallies.  For the music buffs, here is a recent version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zcxx7fNqIs The dramatic anthem celebrating the Ride of the Valkyries is another example of work popular with the Nazi in war time news reels.  However, it was also used for that anti war work of Apocalypse Now.  Which appropriation counts the most?

Can you really be responsible for those who appropriate your work?  Are the great composers responsible for the toilet paper their work now promotes in advertisements around the world?  The appropriation of Wagner’s work by the Nazis was aided by the coincidence of their ideas.  Wagner’s family knew Hitler.  This was an appropriation that seems to have been abetted by the coincidence of views between Wagner and the Nazis.  That however is speculation by me.

The issue of Wagner was a pointed one in the production I was involved in.  Three of the performers were Jewish. One of the singers was a German scholar who was also a Cantor (ritual singer) at the local progressive Jewish Temple.  The cut opera was performed in the Jewish heart of Melbourne in St Kilda.  So the troubling aspect of Wagner and his anti-Semitism had to be addressed. 

Jewish Wagnerians from Stephen Fry to Daniel Barenboim (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jun/20/wagner-and-jews/?pagination=false) wrestle with this issue in this, his 200^th year.  At the same, many areas of Jewish life boycott the Wagnerian Operas.   My opera chose this means of acknowledging the Wagnerian anti Semitism.  We ran a competition (which was a bit of token gesture as it was virtually invisible).  This was put out before the performance:

“Emotionworks, wishing to acknowledge the historical blight (of Wagner’s anti-Semitism) is running a competition.  The winners receive free tickets to the cut opera which will be performed in a boxing ring.  The competition is this:

What gesture, statement or symbol can be used in the program notes, costumes or set (although there really isn’t a set other than the boxing ring) to acknowledge the vileness of Wagner’s anti Semitic attitudes and legacies?  Emotionworks is concerned not to use cheap Nazi paraphernalia but does feel the need explore the contradiction of performing tainted cultural product in a tolerant multicultural society.  Good luck!

Many would see this as an arse covering exercise.  On the other hand, it was a public acknowledgement of the problem and might have led to some people at least reading about and discussing the issue.  Friends of mine, however, refused to come or thought it was inappropriate to celebrate Wagner's work.

The suppression of cultural product is very vexed.  Indeed the Nazis themselves were infamous for their cultural suppression from book burning to the non playing of the music of Jewish composers.  Cultural repression seems to be the handmaiden of many totalitarian regimes. 

Moreover, there is no complete freedom of cultural expression.  We reasonably suppress by law, some culture for reasons of defamation, intellectual theft, treason and in an effort to stymie criminal communications.  We used to suppress culture where it transgressed community standards on vulgarity and obscenity but in these coarse times, that suppression is now too fucking difficult and is pretty fucked up (to coin a phrase).
I do support the suppression of Holocaust denial because of its dangers, its divisiveness, its offensiveness, its dishonesty and its historical distortion. So clearly there are cultural and pseudo historical statements that ought to be suppressed.  

The need and legitimacy of suppressing cultural output that is socially corrosive must diminish over time.  My view is that Wagner’s sins should not be forgotten and should at least be publicly acknowledged at performances of his works (as we did).  But I think I would draw the line at outright suppression in any environment except perhaps those where Nazism is particularly shocking such as Jewish, Gypsy, Gay and say Russian circles.  In some of those circles, the Nazi crimes might still be so raw as to justify suppression.

What is your view?

Should the creative works of nasty people be suppressed?

Should creations appropriated by nasty people be tainted by that appropriation?

When does time run its course so that the suppression loses relevance?

Over to you guys…

PS  Apologies for the late posting of this blog.  Being an opera tart is time consuming business.