First Wagner-Concert in Israel.
A remarkable premiere took place last friday (somewhen in the year 2000) in Rishon LeZion. The Symphonic orchestra of this little city near Tel Aviv performed, despite of considerable resistance from parts of the population, Richard Wagners "Siegfried-Idyll".
Endeavours to cancell that Concert - even with judical help - remained unsucessfull at first. Some persons and institutions sued against the performance. they reasoned that they were afraid of what physical and psychical damage could be done by a wagner piece to the israelian listener and survivor of the Shoah like insomnia, disturbance and states of anxiety.
One day before the act he Israel Supreme Court acknowledged the decision of the court of first instance not to cancel the piece. But, since the trial has not ended yet, the performance of Wagner pieces could be banished in the future. This is, however, highly doubtfull to happen because in israel the freedom of art is also a fundamental right.
Basically everyone has the right not to listen if he doesnt like a specific type of art, and he/she is also legally expected to do so. Traditionally israels judicature has a very high level of tolerance concerning the border between tastelessness and crime - especially when it comes to art they are very liberal. That isn´t just a fertile ground for disclosure journalism, detailed reports on intelligence-service activities and political hate-campains, but it also paved the way for publishing works that may be considered as tasteless or disturbing by the victims of the antisemitism.
It is undisputed that Wagner was an antisemite and that he was Hitlers favourite composer. For Hitler his music towered as a symbol for the teutons. It was played in the concentrationcamps as brutality´s background music. This explains the long ban of Wagner's music in israel. The last public wagner-concert in the modern israel before 1981 was planned one day after the "reichs-pogrom-night" (Reichskristallnacht) in 1938. It was then cancelled because of the events in germany.
In 1981 Zubin Mehta, conductor of the israel philharmonic orchestra, planned on executing the prelude to "Tristan" during a pubic concert in israel. Some of the elder viewers collapsed in tears. Boo-ings from some of the visitors and others tried to storm the stage. With difficulty the orchestra finished the concert. During the following years the public radistations played various Wagner-pieces like "Voice of Music", "Lohengrin" and "Siegfried" without leading to any major protests. In August 2000 the complete "Tristan and Isolde" was scheduled.
During the concert there were no bigger disturbances. According to an article of the daily newspaper "Ha´Aretz" the scene seemed as if there has never been a bigger number of TV-Cameras to a concert than on this friday. The journalists outnumbered the protesters by far. Some of the visitors pointedly left the concerthall at the beginning of the piece.
Infront of the concert hall some Shuah-survivors protested and handed out flyers and protest-posters. A musicologist of the TV-Station N24 said, that "This is a disgrace to all of israels people. Wagner has inspired Hitler to his racism and antisemitism and i can therefore not approve the public performance of any of wagners pieces." On the other hand an israeli Historian and survivor of the Shoah himself said: "I strictly distinguish the world of music form the world of yesterday. Hitler loved Wagner, but the one hasn´t got anything to do with the other."
That´s basially what the whole arguement is about. On the one hand there is the opinion, that Wagner`s music has been labeled as antisemitic by the convictions of its author and it's abuse in nazi-germany and that label cannot be easily removed. The one who uses this music therefore refers to its former use.
The other opinion is, that just because the creator of a specific music was an antisemite and his music was - much later - used by an evil regime for propaganda purposes does not mean that his music is also automatically antisemitic and that it cannot be used for orther purposes. The work is therefore detached from its autor or temprary use.
I personally second that last opinion. Because.. what if i write a brilliant piece of music with all the love i can give, and then, for what reason ever, 3 weeks later i mass-murder 50 kids. what has the latter to do with my music, and why should it be banished just because i am an idiot? music stands for itself and not for anything else aslong as it has no stupid "kill yourself" or "hate and kill all jews" sort of messages in its lyrics.
the same goes for other things - like good plans or good opinions. sometimes someone has a brilliant idea but noone cares because most of his other ideas are crap. i think thats pretty narrow-minded.
[FONT=Times New Roman]Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. What you decide to do every day makes you a good person... or not.[/FONT][br][br]
