Satoshi Akima writes: >To see 'race' theory in Wagner one has to adopt as perverse an >interpretation of him as Hitler imposed upon Wagner, and thus ends up >conceding to Hitler that he was right in interpreting Wagner in such a way. Satoshi Akima surely can't be unaware of Wagner's writings, in particular "Jewry in Music", where he reasons (if that's the right word) that the Jew must be eliminated from German life. There's nothing perverse in facing the plain truth that Hitler had no need to twist Wagner's writings to serve his own ends. Such attempts at whitewashing do Wagner no more good than Satoshi Akima's refusal to admit elements of anti-semitism in his Hero's portrayal of Alberich; or the intense homosexual strands in "Tristan and Isolde", Wagner's sop for the infatuated Ludwig of Bavaria - let alone in "Parsifal". (Note: "elements" and "strands". They are of course not the whole story.) Of course, much of the vitriol squirted at atonal and dodecaphonic music by the Nazis was anti-semitically inspired; hideously ironic, when Wagner was largely responsible for loosening if not rending the tonal garment in the first place. Christopher Webber, Blackheath, London, UK. http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm "ZARZUELA!"