Dr Satoshi Akima writes:
>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.
Why? Anthony Trollope, for example, is guilty of anti-Semitism in several
of his best novels. While this may mar them, it certainly doesn't render
them ripe for universal condemnation. As usual, Dr Akima must have his
Hero all or nothing. That, with respect, is not how theatre works - least
of all theatre on such a large, sprawling canvas as Wagner's. Good art is
always disruptive, even of the most deeply held beliefs and moral codes.
Wagner is good art, not perfect morality. Surely we can agree on this?
>It would justify the ban on his music imposed in Israel.
Though I personally agree in finding the ban disturbing, I can certainly
see the Israelis' point, and wouldn't wish to argue it. You'd have to
have missed out on most of the 20th century to do that.
>Anti-Semitism is not something to be tolerated, and if Wagner's music
>dramas are anti-Semitic they too MUST not be tolerated.
Dr Akima is determined to deny anti-Semitism in Wagner's operas in any
shape or form. To accept it, even as a small corner of their fabric,
would mean he could no longer revere them.
>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?
"Parsifal" is not an 'expression' of anything. The question of racial
superiority is undeniably part of its disturbing web and woof. In the
reality of the theatre - the most potent way to experience the opera -
the Grail Knights are often currently portrayed that way, so the image
must carry resonance for many. (The recent production at ENO in London
portrayed them as broken down First World War German soldiers, to extremely
powerful effect.)
>Please don't put forward anything so comical as the suggestion that
>Klingsor is Jewish
I wouldn't dream of it, for fear of calling down yet another volley of
rutabagas - though of course the idea (not so comical) has occurred to a
good many disparate critics and stage directors over the years. He has
certainly been excluded from the Grail Knights for some shadowy racial
reason rather than for personal failure - his sexual self-mutilation (make
of it what we will) comes after this rejection.
>>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.
Try his first speech, for a start.
>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.
Agreed, but it's significant that the idea of Alberich as Capitalist Jew
was one interpretation clearly revolving in Wagner's mind when he wrote
"Das Rheingold". It doesn't force us to exclude other interpretations,
of course, as Steve Schwartz deftly observed.
>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.
There is a not-so-subtle difference between homo-eroticism, which
certainly does exist in Shakespeare as well as Wagner, and homosexuality,
which arguably doesn't rear its head in either. Innuendo was all that
was open to Wagner in the moral context of his time, so the absence of
homosexual activity can hardly be used to deny the homo-eroticism.
Dr Akima clearly finds the idea of his Beloved Composer dabbling
even theoretically in such murky sexual waters as unpalatable as his
anti-Semitism. Why so? It adds to the overwhelming richness of "Tristan's"
erotic texture.
>The translation that of Tristan he cites as proof is also just frankly
>completely wrong:
Apologies. I was quoting the Wagnerian scholar David Gutman's reading, the
closest to hand, and should have acknowledged as much. I fear my German
isn't up to Wagner's convoluted style without outside help!
>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
I think I need to learn some English, too, for I can't understand Dr
Akima's version at all. Wagner would have been proud of his acolyte.
For what it's worth, I showed the speech in question to a German friend (a
literary Doctor too!) who declared, after a pregnant pause, that it was
virtually impossible to make anything of such stuff - but that the drift
seemed to be in line with the sneaky taunt about Tristan's strong male
friendships which David Gutman suggests. Having said which, I'm happy to
let this little crux drop, and leave the field to Dr Akima and the experts.
>In any case it is just plain silly to suggest that Isolde healed Tristan
>so he could be killed by his gay lover!
Why? People in the throws of passion and jealousies they do not fully
understand behave in precisely this sort of way. Tristan and Isolde are
more than mere symbols. Wagner is being astute and intuitively true to
experience rather than 'silly'.
>It makes Wagner sound worse than soap opera. I guess if you think the
>Ring is pantomime you can believe anything.
Who said "The Ring" was pantomime? Certainly not me, though it does contain
the delightfully funny pantomime elements - such as Mime's soup cauldron -
which I pointed to, before the rutabagas started to fly. (I also suspect
many people enjoy Wagnerian opera for its proximity to soap, but that's a
naughty thought!)
Ultimately, the Wagnerites are unhappy to accept their Hero for what he is,
warts and all. Homo-eroticism in "Tristan" is as unpalatable to Dr Akima
as the disturbing race questions raised by "Parsifal" and anti-Semitism in
"The Ring". Denial is, naturally, his only option.
Well, that is his business. I sympathise with him, but find his
complacently black-and-white views of the operas limiting. For me, it's
these very contradictions and ambiguities that make Wagner so perennially
rewarding as a theatre composer.
Christopher Webber, Blackheath, London, UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"
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