Once More - Wagner

[Peter]

"Mike Scott Rohan" wrote in message
news:7e4b00ee-9101-4e3e...@googlegroups.com...

Wagner, despite his crankiness, was a civilised man, and apart from
outbursts of national fervour a pacifist by nature, and more than once
rejected violence against Jews. That made him certainly less anti-semitic
than much more influential and well-known anti-semites like the Mayor of
Vienna, and probably more like the general runs of Germans at the time.
Where he was unusual was in having Jewish friends living in his family; even
some liberals would draw the line at associating socially with Jews on an
equal basis.

Mike, I wonder if you could be kind enough to provide some examples of where
Wagner "...more than once rejected violence against Jews."

I certainly agree with you that Wagner's supposed anti-semitism has been
considerably exaggerated, including his supposed projecting of anti-semitism
into some of his operatic characters such as Alberich and Mime which I
believe has never been substantiated.

However Wagner did suffer the great misfortune of having been liked by the
worst criminal the world has ever experienced, and the fact that some of
Wagner's married-on heirs, i.e. Siegfried Wagner's wife, for some totally
unexplainable reason adored said criminal.

Since that time most of us seem to have to atone for these sins by having to
endure performances of Wagner operas that are not even remotely related to
the words that are being sung, and these sacrileges are even furthered by
some of Wagner's own flesh and blood, i.e. his great granddaughters.