Poll Asked on Wagner Issue
Plans by the Israel Philharmonic to play works by composer Richard Wagner ran into a new hurdle when a council decided to poll subscribers.
The orchestra raised an outcry last week when it decided to break a 53-year-old ban on scheduled performances by the German composer. Wagner died before the Nazis came to power in Germany, but Adolf Hitler admired Wagner’s anti-Semitic writings and ordered Wagner played at Nazi functions.
The orchestra’s Public Council said that “because of the sensitivity of the issue” it would poll the 30,000 subscribers before backing the concert scheduled for Friday.
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