History was nearly made, and the ability to enjoy Wagner, whetherJew or non-Jew, was once again disturbed - not by Nazis, but by TelAviv University. A "seven-decade unofficial boycott" will continue thanks to theacademic institution's decision to cancel a performance by the Israel Wagner Society on the 18 June. In defence the university has said that it has received angryletters at the inclusion - but instead of challenging opinion (noteven prevailing opinion I might add) like universities should, itjust buckled, and gave Hitler what he would have wanted -exclusivity to certain very good works of art and expression. This isn't the first time something like this has happened either.Last year, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra were criticised forplaying a festival in Bayreuth, Southern Germany, dedicated to themusic of Wagner, with the Conductor, one Roberto Paternostro - wholost many members of his family in the Holocaust - arguing thatthis was an attempt "to divide the man from his art." At the time, the great granddaughter of Wagner, Katharina, who wasto visit Israel to formally invite the orchestra, called it anopportunity to "heal wounds".
Like with so many artists with foul beliefs, I feel it justified tobe allowed to enjoy their art, in spite of them. Art, after all, issomething merely facilitated by the artist; your subjectiveevaluation and judgement is not only important to that art, butvital for its existence. The artist doesn't forgo their subjective beliefs in the creationof their art, but rather their art forgoes the artist and empowersthe reader/viewer. To this end we should ignore the tyranny ofguilt that is somehow embedded in our enjoyment of such works ofart as Wagner's. Like how Stephen Fry put it once: "You can't allow the perverted views of pseudo-intellectualNazis to define how the world should look at Wagner.
He's biggerthan that, and we're not going to give them the credit, the joy ofstealing him from us." Furthermore on art, Wagner and the anti-Semitic context, in a piececalled Why is Wagner worth saving? philosopher Slavoj Zizek vents his criticism on what he calls the"historicist commonplace" that says "in order to understand a workof art, one needs to know its historical context". Zizek notes "too much of a historical context can blur the propercontact with a work of art". He then claims that there is the temptation when listening toWagner to imagine that every sub-text is anti-Semitic, but, usingthe examples of Parsifal and the Ring, tries to prove this isn'talways correct. In the Ring according to Zizek, it is notAlberich's renunciation of love for power that is the source of allevil, but rather Wotan's disruption of the natural balance,"succumbing to the lure of power, giving preference to power overlove", which spells doom, meaning also that evil does not come fromthe outside, but is complicit with Wotan's own guilt. WithParsifal, the elitist circle of the pure-blooded is not jeopardisedby external contaminators such as copulation by the Jewess Kundry,but rather from inside; "it is Titurel's excessive fixation ofenjoying the Grail which is at the origins of the misfortune".
The point being is Wagner "undermines the anti-Semitic perspectiveaccording to which the disturbance always ultimately comes fromoutside, in the guise of a foreign body which throws out of jointthe balance of the social organism". The overarching thesis of Zizek is that the anti-Semitic sub-textis not always appropriate when engaging with Wagner, and if thisart is separate from the evil of the early twentieth century, thenthere is reason to save Wagner. The Wagner boycott is one example of denying the world a greatartist, and allowing the Nazis a small victory. The point is Wagnercan, and must, be enjoyed by anyone who wishes to - Tel AvivUniversity needs to come to its senses.
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