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Subject:
From:
Gale Andrews <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 19 Dec 2000 00:42:09 +0000
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David Rothstein feels:

>In a liberal and pluralistic society (and we endeavour, not always
>successfully, to maintain this in Israel) there must be a very, very very
>good reason to enforce a cultural boycott

I completely agree.  No - one can but sympathize with the feelings and
memories WAGNER's music must arouse in the Holocaust victims.  Yet time
must move on.  To take the argument to its logical and fatuous conclusion,
one would bar any of MOZART's operas on the grounds of offending tenth
generation relatives of those politicians of the time whom the composer
slighted in his works.  Or the Vatican might forbid most of BACH's output
at some future time of dispute with the Anglican Church.

To follow the path of cultural boycotts is to merely stoop to the
tyrants' own level.  Whatever WAGNER's published remarks, or allusions to
Anti-Semitism in his operas, he can and must be judged only on his musical
values.  And in pursuance of that objective, those wishing to perform and
listen to his music in public must be allowed to do so, in my opinion, for
the larger good.

Gale Andrews, G.Andrews Classical LPs
[log in to unmask]
http://www.galeandrews.co.uk

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