tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post4363356025189639596..comments2024-01-10T17:22:13.898-08:00Comments on Mary Kunz Goldman - Music Critic: Lost in la la landHoward Goldman http://www.blogger.com/profile/11835068305524570405noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-65826347808424392402011-07-25T17:58:26.338-07:002011-07-25T17:58:26.338-07:00Prof. G, I'm sorry I got behind in getting bac...Prof. G, I'm sorry I got behind in getting back to you! I have not had time to think. Your stories are so welcome. About the "Christ killing" business, there is the minor matter that Christ was a Jew. How can Christians hate Jews if they worship Christ? BTW about the Wagner/Cosima etc. story, yes, I do consider it funny, and not always darkly. You are certainly right about them taking themselves seriously!Mary Kunz Goldmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-37789355995204330762011-07-06T18:48:15.720-07:002011-07-06T18:48:15.720-07:00I'm not on Twitter, but I have my own take abo...I'm not on Twitter, but I have my own take about Wagner and racism. I feel a lot of it was founded on jealousy of Mendelssohn. I think Wagner resented his silver spoon upbringing, his fabulous facility, and his making the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts a bastion of conservative programming and reactionary thought (Wagner, you recall, was born in Leipzig, and was always a musical revolutionary). Since you were discussing Meistersinger, Wagner quotes the Midsummer Night's Dream Nocturne (it's quick, but there) in the Prelude to Act 3, and the wind chords that lead into Evening Star in Tannhauser are right out of the Midsummer Night's Dream Overture. I think Mendelssohn's genius was gall to Wagner, and part of what motivated him to try and reclaim Bach/Mozart/Beethoven as both German (not Jewish influenced), and the pinnacle of art. Later, his animus was strengthened by his bitter dealings as a subordinate, in Paris, to Meyerbeer, Halevy, etc., and finally became a mania. There were Jews Wagner cared about, such as Joseph Rubinstein, but they had to grovel before him to win his sympathy.<br /><br />The part I hate to write about is the Christian Church (Catholic and Lutheran) and their centuries of preaching of Jews as God murderers. This became dogma in a lot of European cultures. When I was a kid going to church I never heard any of this and I think the Catholic Church was so appalled by the revelation of the Holocaust in 1945/46 that they simply shut up about Jew blaming. I was born in 1951 and I think you're about 10 years younger then I am, so we wouldn't have been exposed to it. I'm always troubled to meet older Catholics, especially Polish immigrants, who breathe fire about Jews in Poland. One was the wife of someone I like and respect and I was blindsided by her outburst. If we talk in person sometime, I'll tell you this story and a few others. I don't want to write about it on a weblog.<br /><br />If you or someone really want to research this, you'll find yourself in a maze of accusation, justification, sophistry and God knows what. And you might find No Exit (like the Sartre title) in the end. I look into this stuff from time to time and wind up baffled.<br /><br />You have a good sense of humor. Don't you find some of the Wagner/Cosima/Ludwig story darkly funny? They took themselves SOOO seriously!Prof. Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-36779198743440516532011-07-06T17:51:26.617-07:002011-07-06T17:51:26.617-07:00Prof. G you are always so self deprecating. Your c...Prof. G you are always so self deprecating. Your comments are always illuminating. Interesting, about Cosima wanting that speech in there! I would believe it.<br /><br />I know about Wagner's anti-Semitic screeds but I often wonder how much of that was politically motivated. He wanted money from certain quarters and he would say what he had to say to get it, is what I think. One day I will research this as it deserves to be researched.<br /><br />Are you on Twitter? If you are, you should follow Cosima Wagner. It's a riot.Mary Kunz Goldmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-5433071011317674622011-07-05T07:42:08.277-07:002011-07-05T07:42:08.277-07:00I don't know how deeply you've read in the...I don't know how deeply you've read in the subject, but there's good evidence that Cosima, born and bred in aristocratic Catholic Paris, is the one who wanted the "German art" speech included in Meistersinger. Wagner wrote it, but felt it held up the action, and finally included it to make her happy. You will hate this, but anti-semitism was an article of faith in that class of the French and it finally burst into scandal as the Dreyfus Affair.<br /><br />Wagner detested Jews, but was always aware of their support. He and Cosima deplored Bismarck's granting German Jews full citizenship, but refused to sign a petition protesting it. It's impossible to know how he would have reacted to the Third Reich. It is certainly true that the Hitler regime had the support of Bayreuth.<br /><br /> But then, what do I know? I'm as stateless, rootless and godless as anyone who was gassed in a death camp!Prof. Gnoreply@blogger.com