Controversies surrounding Richard Wagner

[3] Several of his writings have achieved some notoriety, in particular, his essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (Judaism in Music), a critical view on the influence of Jews in German culture and society at that time.

A belief also exists that his fatal heart attack followed an argument with his wife Cosima over the singer Carrie Pringle, with whom some claim he had an amorous relationship.

[9] However, as he struggled to develop his career he began to resent the success of Jewish composers such as Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer.

He argued that Jewish musicians were only capable of producing music that was shallow and artificial because they had no connection to the genuine spirit of the German people.

Although this has been taken by some commentators to mean actual physical annihilation, in the context of the essay it seems to refer only to the eradication of Jewish separateness and traditions.

[citation needed] Wagner advises Jews to follow the example of Jewish convert to Protestantism Ludwig Börne by abandoning Judaism.

[11] The initial publication of the article attracted little attention, but Wagner wrote a self-justifying letter about it to Franz Liszt in 1851, claiming that his "long-suppressed resentment against this Jewish business" was "as necessary to me as gall is to the blood".

[12] Wagner republished the pamphlet under his own name in 1869, with an extended introduction, leading to several public protests at the first performances of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

[14] Some biographers, such as Theodor Adorno and Robert Gutman[15] have advanced the claim that Wagner's opposition to Jews was not limited to his articles, and that the operas contained such messages.

In 1881, Wagner showed his surprise at the fact that a Jewish actor (Julius Lieban) was chosen to play a dwarf (Mime) in Siegfried.

[22] There is evidence to suggest that Wagner was very interested in Gobineau's idea that Western society was doomed because of miscegenation between "superior" and "inferior" races.

He, too, had peered into an Inner: he proved the blood in modern manhood's veins, and found it tainted past all healing.In "Know Thyself"[25] Wagner deals with the German people, who Gobineau believes are the "superior" Aryan race.

[29] About the time of Wagner's death, European nationalist movements were losing the Romantic, idealistic egalitarianism of 1848, and acquiring tints of militarism and aggression, due in no small part to Bismarck's takeover and unification of Germany in 1871.

[citation needed] Many scholars have argued that Wagner's views, particularly his antisemitism and purported Aryan-Germanic racism, influenced the Nazis.

The following year, those functionaries were ordered to attend, but they could be seen dozing off during the performance, so that in 1935, Hitler conceded and released the tickets to the public.

[35] In general, while Wagner's music was often performed during the Third Reich, his popularity actually declined in Germany in favor of Italian composers such as Verdi and Puccini.

As part of the regime's propaganda intentions of 'Nazifying' German culture, specific attempts were made to appropriate Wagner's music as 'Nazi' and pseudo-academic articles appeared such as Paul Bülow's "Adolf Hitler and the Bayreuth Ideological Circle" (Zeitschrift für Musik, July 1933).

[39] Wagner's operas have never been staged in the modern State of Israel, and the few public instrumental performances that have occurred have provoked much controversy.

In 1981 Zubin Mehta, as an encore at an orchestral concert in Tel-Aviv, played extracts from Tristan und Isolde, after offering those who wished (including two members of the orchestra who had asked to be excused) the opportunity to leave.

[42][43] In 1992, Daniel Barenboim programmed works by Wagner at a concert of the Israel Philharmonic, but this was cancelled after protests, although a rehearsal was opened to the public.

[44] The first documented public Israeli Wagner concerts were in 2000, when the Holocaust survivor Mendi Rodan conducted the Siegfried Idyll in Rishon LeZion, and in August 2001 when a concert conducted by Barenboim in Tel Aviv included as an encore an extract from Tristan und Isolde, which divided the audience between applause and protest.