[Leica] Peter's article on Wagner is up

[jsmith342 at gmail.com (Jefffery Smith)]

Thank you, Mark. I thought of this earlier. If you want to boycott the  
concerts, you're hurting the musicians, many of whom are not in this  
fray, and many of whom are Jewish. None of us are pleased by what  
happened 70 year ago, but life goes on. I'm apolitical, so I'm on the  
sidelines here.


On Aug 7, 2009, at 8:16 PM, Mark Rabiner wrote:

>> Peter's article is well written. I appreciate his willingness to make
>> allowances for others' musical preferences.
>> I detest Wagner's racism and his music. For 7 years beginning in  
>> 1938 I
>> heard little else. It was an integral part of the political  
>> environment as
>> was the antisemitism that Wagner and his ilk espoused. The  
>> "undesirable"
>> composers, conductors, and performers who did not flee were murdered.
>> Oliver
>>
>
>
> I live in the Upper West Side of New York city one of the most  
> historically
> famous long standing Jewish neighborhoods in the world.
> Down the street the multiplex known as Lincoln Center - Metropolitan  
> Opera
> House had the epic Wagner Ring cycle dominating the summer season  
> just over.
> Half the people in the audience, on the stage and in the orchestra  
> were
> easily Jewish.
>
> Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold)
> Die Walk?re (The Valkyrie)
> Siegfried
> G?tterd?mmerung (The Twilight of the Gods)
>
> Many of the great recordings of Wager were conducted by Leonard  
> Bernstein,
> Lorin Maazel and many other Jewish conductors. They all got by it.  
> They
> didn't seem to feel Wagner wrote Hitler's speeches but was what was  
> on the
> record player.
>
> The Wagner Ring cycle was also picked up by a few people other than  
> the Nazi
> propaganda machine.
> George Lukas - Star Wars
> J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings.
>
>
>
> Mark William Rabiner
>
>
>
>
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