Christopher Webber writes:

>Oh dear.  Please Mr Akima, try to understand that I am not and have never
>been in the business of attacking

Firstly Dr Akima to you my dear Mr Webber.  The rest of the people on the
list are welcome to call me Satoshi.  As usual there is little LOVE lost
between us (there is nothing homoerotic in this statement!).  Any claim
that Wagner's spiteful anti-Semitism also found it's way into Wagner's
music dramas OUGHT to be an attack on Wagner.  Because if these accusations
were indeed true then Wagner's music dramas would deserve universal
condemnation.  It would justify the ban on his music imposed in Israel.
To suggest otherwise would be nothing less than the defence of Hitler's
perverse anti-Semitic distortions imposed upon Wagner's music dramas, and
for all practical purposes an indirect defence of Hitlerism.  Anti-Semitism
is not something to be tolerated, and if Wagner's music dramas are
anti-Semitic they too MUST not be tolerated.

>I'll leave aside the fundamental theme of racial superiority, which is all
>too apparent both within and without the operas (Parsifal especially) to
>need further tedious space-wasting.

I don't think it is so obvious.  To see anti-Semitism then one has to
say the Nibelungen were not dwarves but that despite no indication to that
effect that 'we all know' that they are really nothing but Jews.  As for
Parsifal being an expression of race superiority, I find this especially
bizarre.  Does this mean that the knights of the Holy Grail aren't really
knights but again despite no indication to that effect they are in fact
Storm Troopers? Or is it the fact that they are defenders of the Christian
faith that makes the work anti-Semitic? In which case so is Bach's St
Mathew Passion.  Please don't put forward anything so comical as the
suggestion that Klingsor is Jewish:) I get worried when someone starts to
claim that things are so obvious no evidence is required.

>A note on Alberich to add to Mats Norman's on the Nibelung brothers.
>First, read the text out loud - trying hard not to think of Schopenhauer -
>and pick up on Alberich's Jewish-German diction.

Examples please.

>Next, go to the archives to confirm Wagner's instructions to the original
>singer to use "semitic gestures" in the role.  Enough?

Yes, but where does it say this in the printed text? So you have proved
that Wagner the person condoned a very disgusting anti-Semitism but yet
even this does nothing to prove that the final published TEXT of the work
is anti-Semitic.

>The homo-erotic strand in "Tristan and Isolde" is neither sublime nor
>ridiculous; but it is certainly intense enough, particularly on the
>Tristan-Mark-Melot axis.  Without this, I doubt whether the opera would be
>quite as richly suggestive as it is about the complexities of human love
>and desire.

the relationship between the three male characters is one of friendship
and betrayal.  What is homosexual about this? There are examples from
Shakespeare in which male friends profess love for one another.  Even
this is not necessarily homosexual.  Again to read a homosexual content
into Tristan one has to say that it is there even though nothing is said
explicitly at all.  It is at best to be assumed on the basis of innuendo.
Once again it seems this is more a figment of Mr Webber's overly fertile
homoerotic imagination I am sorry.  The translation that of Tristan he
cites as proof is also just frankly completely wrong:

>Isolde herself is highly aware of Tristan's ambiguities when she taunts
>him in Act 1 ... "I cared for the injured man, so that when he recovered
>he might be slain in vengeance by the man WHO WON HIM FROM Isolde"

The original German text in my version of the score from p147 Dover, 1973
reads:

    Ich pflag des Wunden
    dass den Heilgesunden
    raechend schluege der Mann,
    der IsoldEN IHN abgewann.

It seems that Mr Webber really does need to learn some German before he
sets himself up as an authority on the text.  The quote should read (my
translation):

    I tended the wounded man
    so that in vengeance
    the man who wins himself over Isolde
    might slay him

The archaic German -EN ending to Isolde suggests that 'IsoldEN' is the
object of the sentence in question.  It is Isolde who is won over.  It also
makes more sense in the context of the text that Isolde might allow herself
to be won over by the Irish hero capable of avenging Morold's death.  In
any case at best the whole argument for the alleged homoerotic connotations
really does rest on the grammatical interpretation of a couple of letters!
I don't think arguments come more tenuous than this.

If one were to accept the text/translation of the text quoted by Mats
Norman it still does not necessarily imply anything homosexual at all:

    Ich pflag des Wunden / I tended the wounded man
    dass den Heilgesunden / So that, restored to health,
    raechend schluege der Mann, / He should be struck down in vengeance by
    the man
    der IsoldE IHM abgewann. / Who won Isolde FROM him.

I agree that 'ihm' can still also be translated as "from him".  However
it is unclear if "him=ihm" points to Tristan as Christopher Webber
suggests.  And no matter which version one reads it is blatantly incorrect
to translate "der Isolde" as "from Isolde" as Christopher Webber does.  In
any case it is just plain silly to suggest that Isolde healed Tristan so he
could be killed by his gay lover!  It makes Wagner sound worse than soap
opera.  I guess if you think the Ring is pantomime you can believe
anything.  [Koennen die deutsche Mitglieder uns bitte helfen!]

>I'm glad at least not to have roused the ire of our tame Wagnerites by
>mentioning the composer's role in nascent atonalism!

Rather I openly welcome it.  That was one of the main reasons for me
getting interested in Wagner:  as the father of 20th century music.  It
has also been insinuated that Wagner is my 'Hero' or my 'Cult Deity'.
Much though I may love his music dramas he is still not my single favourite
composer.  I would freely admit to sometimes preferring Bach and Webern
AMONGST OTHERS to Wagner.  And NO Webern is not my cult deity either, thank
you!

Again I will try to make this the last time I allow myself to be dragged
into this sort of murky quagmire of nonsense.  Heaven forbid if I have
encouraged another lengthy mindless polemic.

Now back to the main topic of this thread!

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia
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