May 22nd is the date the composer Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig Germany, in 1813. As one trained in music I have to acknowledge his genius as composer - and as dramatist. As one of Jewish background, I cannot help but acknowledge - and regret - his anti-semitism, which can be seen in his words. And there is no doubt of the strong connection between Wagner and Hitler.
This is the day before that of my own birth. I have long been aware of being bracked by two great musicians, Wagner who hated Judaism and Bob Dylan (May 24) who long abandoned and rejected his own.
Today I will acknowledge what is hateful about Wagner, even as I honor the genius of his music, which regardless of my own background, I greatly love.
Wagner's words make clear his antipathy, even hatred, for anything Jewish:
"Only one thing can redeem you (Jews) from the burden of your curse: the redemption of Ahasverus -- total destruction."
"cursed Jew-scum"
"I have cherished a long repressed resentment about this Jew money-world, and this hatred is as necessary to my nature as gall is to blood."
"By removing [Jewish] vermin, I don't necessarily mean destroying them . . . There are many ways, systematic, and comparatively painless, or at any rate bloodless, of causing races to vanish . . . We may take systematic measures to dam their great natural fertility . . . By doing this gradually and without bloodshed, we demonstrate our humanity."
"The Jew is the parasite in the body of other nations."
Wagner argued that the Jew should not be destroyed because "we should have to invent him. It is essential to have a tangible enemy, not merely an abstract one."
For years his music was not performed in Israel Iuntil Zuban Mehta broke the barrier) - after all, Hitler was greatly fond of it. He embraced Wagner's aging widow Cosima, his son Siegried, and that man 's son-in-law the English anti=Smite Houston Stewart Chamberlain.
And there are anti-Semitic images in the music - from Alberich to Beckmeister.
But oh, the music. . .
Here are but a few examples:
THe introduction to Parsifal, conducted by the great Jewish musician Daniel Barenboim:
The beginning of the overture to Rienzi:
As well known as anything, the Ride of the Valkeries, which for many of my generation is irrevocably associated with the helicopter attack in Francis Ford Coppolla's "Apocalypse Now" -
A near perfect composition, reflective of the overall opera, is the Prelude to Die Meistersingers:
The most played piece of Wagner is certainly often heard at weddings, as the bride enters and if not already doing so the Congregation stands as the notes of the Bridal chorus from Lohengrin are played:
Tannhauser is an opera about Redemption, about miracles. To be certain, Wagner had a distorted notion of Christianity, and insisted that Jesus was not a Jew. Still, this music is something that still moves me:
If you will excuse the accompanying video (although perhaps with Wagner dinosaurs are appropriate?), the sensuous music of the Liebestodt from Tristan und Isolde:
or the same music, with the singers, in context:
With a modern setting, the death march music from Gotterdammerung, the Twilight of the Gods, last of the 4 parts of the Ring:
I could put hundreds of clips of Wagner up. His operas work with traditional and modern staging, not dissimilarly from what has been done with the plays of Shakespeare.
Wagner has an important (but fortunately not well known connection with our own history, as he was commissioned to write the official Centennial March (a truly forgettable piece of music) for our 1876 celebration!
Shakespeare puts these words into the mouth of Antony in Julius Caesar:
come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.
Some might be inclined to treat Wagner in a similar fashion, despite the magnificence of his art.
I prefer instead the words of Paul of Tarsus in 1 Thessalonians that we should prove all things, but hold fast that which is good.
The music is more than good. It is great. It may be unfortunate that it came from the mind and soul of so noxious a human being as Richard Wagner.
Perhaps I am too generous to the art? As I consider this final day of my 62nd year, I can only hope that my evils and failings, even as I acknowledge them, be given less weight than what meager good I may have done. I think of the single onion by which a malicious and spiteful woman could in theory be pulled from hell - one of the strongest images I drew from reading Brothers Karamazov. And if I want that grace for myself, I must be generous in offering it to others.
So to me it is appropriate to look back upon Wagner at the end of each year, affirm the music if not the man.
Let me end with the purest expression of the love of which Wagner was capable, from the Siegfried Idyll he wrote as a surprise gift for his beloved wife:
If like me today is not the anniversary of your appearance on this earth, I offer to you the words remembered from a Disney Film on Alice in Wonderland, A very merry unbirthday to us.
Peace.