Didrik Schiele wrote:

>I don't understand how Wagner could be held responsible for what his
>descendants did 50 years later.  If you commit a crime, shall we sue your
>grand-pa? Besides Winnifred was a Chamberlain and not a Wagner....

As a person who has listened w/ enjoyment to Wagner's music since he
started listening to classical music as a boy, I can go along w/ most of
what Didrik wrote (I'm not sure he's taken the correct measure of Winifred)
except the last comment.

If I don't want to hear Wagner's music, I should not be forced to do so.
If I do not wish to subscribe to a concert performing Wagner's music, I
should not be forced to do so.  This is so whether my wishes are related to
my opinion of Wagner's music or of Wagner's personality or of what Wagner
has been perceived to represent.

If scheduling Wagner's music in Israel results in such declines in
subscriptions and attendance at concerts as to force the cancellations of
concerts or concert series (which, incidentally, I'm not sure is the case),
than his music, IMO, should not be scheduled.  It's a regrettable response
but the only sensible one in the circumstances.  That does not mean,
however, that Barenboim, or anyone else, should be declared persona non
grata or otherwise branded by the Israeli government or any of its agencies
for having sought to have Wagner's music performed there.

Nevertheless, the decision of whether or not to perform Wagner's music,
even the wrong decision, can simply not be compared to the Nazi's "final
solution".

Walter Meyer