The Man and His Music

In his criticism of Israel for discouraging public performances of Richard Wagner’s music (“Wagner’s Lesson, Unheeded,” July 22), Mark Swed indulges in a semi-whitewash, conceding Wagner’s “virulent anti-Semitism” and mentioning that he “made unsavory [operatic] characters ... into caricatures of Jews.” But, astonishingly, in a long paean to the music, Swed doesn’t hint at how, in other ways, Wagner’s anti-Semitism expressed itself. Or the tragic consequences.

For the record: Wagner wrote widely disseminated articles containing such sentiments as “I consider the Jewish race the born enemy of humanity and all that is noble in man,” and branding Jews as the “demon causing mankind’s downfall.” In short, he was a 19th century proto-Nazi who used his stature as a composer to make anti-Semitism culturally “respectable.” He fueled the fires of European anti-Semitism that eventually erupted into the 20th century Holocaust. A damn good reason for the position taken on his music by victims of that Holocaust.

AL RAMRUS

Pacific Palisades

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Regardless of whether one approves of Wagner’s music or not, Daniel Barenboim’s decision to play the “Tristan” prelude as an encore was a totally unprofessional trick. If Barenboim felt so strongly after the festival organizers instructed him not to play Wagner, then he should have canceled his and/or the orchestra’s appearance in protest. But to apparently agree with the decision and then to play Wagner is the height of chutzpah.

BOB THOMAS

Los Angeles

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While reading Swed’s very perceptive article, I remembered some of the wisest words I have read about Israel’s “problems” and anti-Semitism. Yehoshafat Harkabi, former chief of Israeli military intelligence, advisor to prime ministers and considered an expert on Israeli and Arab relations, writes in his book “Israel’s Fateful Hour”: “It would be a tragic irony if the Jewish state, which was intended to solve the problem of anti-Semitism, was to become a factor in the rise of anti-Semitism. Israelis must be aware that the price of their misconduct is paid not only by them but also by Jews throughout the world. In the struggle against anti-Semitism, the front line begins in Israel.”

Israel’s “misconduct” includes the use of helicopter gunships, tanks, skilled sharpshooters, mortars, bombs, bulldozers, F-16s, roadblocks and assassinations against an illegally occupied civilian population.

I agree with Swed’s conclusion that Israel’s problems have to do with its “ability to listen to things it doesn’t want to hear, and that happens to affect us all.” It is obvious that many Israelis are not listening and are failing to recognize that others are listening and seeing, and many do not approve of Israeli misdeeds and policies.

Almost all of the audience gave Barenboim a standing ovation after listening to the Wagner encore. Obviously, some Israelis are listening.

FLORENCE RICHARDS

Whittier

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My little brother, Bernard, age 10, burned in an oven in Birkenau-Auschwitz on June 25, 1943, together with his mother, my mother, all in front of my eyes. The “glorious” tones of Wagner’s music were the last things they heard on this earth, between their own screams; same fate for my father a few days later. And for 700 days after that I stepped around piles and piles of corpses. Every hanging, every beating, each atrocity and inhumane act, was done to that music.

Wagner’s oeuvre was not just music to us, it was a loud and clear message: “You deserve to die because you don’t conform to my norms, to my prototype, to my ‘Siegfried,’ the ideal human specimen.”

My little brother has found peace, I am sure, in a place where Wagner’s music is nowhere to be heard.

MAURICE KORNBERG

Los Angeles