Israelis, Arabs to do Wagner in Germany

An opera by Richard Wagner -- whose music and anti-Semitic writings influenced Adolf Hitler -- will be performed by an orchestra made up of Israeli and Arab musicians and conducted by a Jew at an open-air theater built by the Nazis.

Daniel Barenboim told Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper that the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, made up of young musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries, plans next year to perform the first act of Wagner’s “Die Walkuere” at Berlin’s Waldbuehne -- an arena built by the Nazis as part of the complex for the 1936 Olympics.

“Can you imagine that?” Barenboim was quoted as saying in the interview, released Wednesday. “The Waldbuehne was built by Hitler. The music is Wagner. Played by us! Hitler and Wagner would turn in their graves.”