"Nobody in their right mind denies that Wagner was an anti-Semite, and a virulent one at that. But is there actual evidence of anti-Semitism in the works themselves? . . . Weiner's brilliant book gathers the evidence more meticulously and comprehensively than any has done before, and is essential reading."-Barry Millington, Opera. "A serious attempt to place Wagner's dramatic work into proper context both in the field of music and in the repertoire of antisemitic literature-and it deserves to be studied carefully."-Cecil Bloom, Judaism Today. "A tremendous advance in the study of Wagner and the cultural influences that informed his work."-Hillary Hope Herzog, Modern Language Notes. "An immensely informative cultural history."-German Life. "Certainly the most important work on Wagner that I have read in the last decade. It opens up fresh approaches and is likely-no, certain-to have a major impact on Wagner studies as well as the history of antisemitic mentality."-Paul Lawrence Rose, author of Wagner: Race, Revolution and Redemption. Marc A. Weiner is a professor of Germanic studies and film studies at Indiana University and the author of Undertones of Insurrection (Nebraska 1993).
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Nobody in their right mind denies that Wagner was an anti-Semite, and a virulent one at that. But is there actual evidence of anti-Semitism in the works themselves? . . . Weiner's brilliant book gathers the evidence more meticulously and comprehensively than any has done before, and is essential reading."-Barry Millington, Opera (Barry Millington Opera )
"A serious attempt to place Wagner's dramatic work into proper context both in the field of music and in the repertoire of antisemitic literature-and it deserves to be studied carefully."-Cecil Bloom, Judaism Today (Cecil Bloom Judaism Today )
"A tremendous advance in the study of Wagner and the cultural influences that informed his work."-Hillary Hope Herzog, Modern Language Notes (Hillary Hope Herzog Modern Language Notes )
"An immensely informative cultural history."-German Life (German Life )
"Certainly the most important work on Wagner that I have read in the last decade. It opens up fresh approaches and is likely-no, certain-to have a major impact on Wagner studies as well as the history of antisemitic mentality."-Paul Lawrence Rose, author of Wagner: Race, Revolution and Redemption (Paul Lawrence Rose )
"A serious attempt to place Wagner's dramatic work into proper context both in the field of music and in the repertoire of antisemitic literature-and it deserves to be studied carefully."-Cecil Bloom, Judaism Today (Cecil Bloom Judaism Today )
"A tremendous advance in the study of Wagner and the cultural influences that informed his work."-Hillary Hope Herzog, Modern Language Notes (Hillary Hope Herzog Modern Language Notes )
"An immensely informative cultural history."-German Life (German Life )
"Certainly the most important work on Wagner that I have read in the last decade. It opens up fresh approaches and is likely-no, certain-to have a major impact on Wagner studies as well as the history of antisemitic mentality."-Paul Lawrence Rose, author of Wagner: Race, Revolution and Redemption (Paul Lawrence Rose )
About the Author
Marc A. Weiner is a professor of Germanic studies and film studies at Indiana University and the author of Undertones of Insurrection (Nebraska 1993).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
No contemporary evidence,
By A Customer
This review is from: Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination (Texts and Contexts) (Paperback)
The people who say this book is nonsense aren't necessarily "screeching", as a reader from New Orleans says. (Though the "reader from New Zealand" who seems to be expressing support for the losing side during WWII is the kind of Wagner fan who embarrasses Wagner fans.) Anyway the New Orleans reader quotes as "facts", the only two pieces of "evidence" that Weiner cited to show that audiences in Wagner's lifetime recognised coded antisemitic messages in the operas. "Fact 1" is that there were protests against "recognizable antisemitism" at the _Die Meistersinger_ premieres at Mannheim and Vienna in 1869. But that's not a fact. The protests weren't against _Meistersinger_, but were against Wagner's disgraceful re-publication, early in 1869, of the antisemitic essay _Das Judentum in Musik_. All Wagner productions current that year (except in Berlin) suffered a backlash. In Breslau Wagner's _Lohengrin_ was withdrawn after protests from the local Jewish community, and the reception of Wagner's _Rienzi_ in Paris was "harmed". Serves Wagner right, too. Weiner didn't allege there was any antisemitism in either _Lohengrin_ or _Reinzi_ (and obviously he would have if he thought it could be done) but they were still part of the same wave of protest, in 1869, that also included the Mannheim and Vienna _Meistersinger_. That is, the protests were not about or caused by any of the three Wagner operas that were campaigned against in 1869, but were to do with offence properly taken at Wagner's essay. For background to the 1869 republication of _Das Judentum_ and the hostile reaction it caused, see Jacob Katz, _The Darker Side of Genius: Wagner's anti-Semitism_, pp 70-77. Further evidence that the protests were about the essay's republication, not about _Meistersinger_ or the other operas, is that after Wagner later wrote his open letter disassociating himself from antisemitic agitation, there were no further protests at performances of _Meistersinger_ or any other Wagner operas. On the Mahler "fact", that's not really evidence of what Wagner's contemporary audiences read into Wagner's operas. Weiner says that even by the turn of the century it would have been hard to read Wagner's alleged coded messages. This presumably explains why early commentators mysteriously failed to notice them. But the Mahler quote is from the turn of the century, 1898, twenty-seven years after the _Rheingold_ premiere (in which Mime first appeared), twenty-two years after the _Siegfried_ premiere (in which Mime returns), and fifteen years after Wagner's death. It tells us something about Mahler in 1898, but not about Wagner's contemporary audiences. The late date is only one issue with the Mahler quote. I quote the review by Lisa Norris, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, for H-Judaic: "Weiner's references to Mahler are problematic too. He quotes Mahler's private remark in 1898 that Wagner's Mime was "intended to ridicule the Jews (with all of their characteristic traits...)...," but Weiner does not point out that in 1897, the Jewish-born Mahler converted to Catholicism, and so his own relationship to Judaism and antisemitism was singular and at a critical stage. Can Weiner then really claim that "Mahler stated what I believe must have been obvious to Wagner's contemporaries..." (p. 143)? Where are representative statements from the broader spectrum of opera-going society to corroborate this?" Where indeed? The issue is not whether Wagner was antisemitic; I doubt if many Wagner fans, "screeching" or otherwise, would deny that. It makes Wagner the man reprehensible in the same way that other antisemitic composers like JS Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, to give a few examples from a regrettably very long list, were reprehensible people. 19th century antisemitism was a European-wide cultural attitude, not a Wagnerian one, and for some it may be easier to focus on one individual than on a culture, or several cultures. Still, the fact remains that Wagner _was_ antisemitic, and that's a disgrace for the man. But it doesn't follow that artists put the worst of themselves into their art: no-one alleges, for example, that TS Eliot's antisemitism is hidden in coded messages in the poems of "Cats". But the issue is whether Weiner's book alleging secret antisemitic codes in Wagner's operas is a good book or a lot of nonsense. The second conclusion seems more reasonable. Weiner suggests that people who disbelieve him are in denial, and hints this may be because they are antisemitic themselves. This is not an acceptable kind of argument. You could turn it around and say that only someone who has - perhaps inadvertently - absorbed antisemitic attitudes could read supposedly Jewish characteristics into a fairly standard-issue mythological dwarf like Mime. But insult, on either side, is not a particularly useful form of argument. People refuse to accept Weiner's thesis for the same reason they refuse to accept von Daniken's thesis in "Chariots of the Gods" or Berlitz's thesis on the Bermuda Triangle: because the arguments don't hold up and the evidence isn't there. Weiner's arguments in favour of his coded messages are so unconvincing, despite the ingenuity used in creating and describing them, that taken as a whole his book is a convincing argument against the existence of coded antisemitic messages in Wagner's operas. .
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Inconsistent and incoherent "proof" of pre-judged case,
By Laon (moon-lit Surry Hills) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination (Texts and Contexts) (Paperback)
The book's thesis is that Wagner's "good" characters, especially in the "Ring" and "Meistersinger" are all Aryans, while his bad characters are all Jews. This ignores the fact that the "Ring" depicts a struggle between love and the will to power, in which both gods and Nibelungs value power over love, and are morally equivalent. The gods are not "good", nor the Nibelungs "evil". And Wagner is on the side of love, not power. (The Nazis came to realise the gulf between their views and Wagner's, banning performances of both the "Ring" and "Parsifal" throughout the Third Reich, because they contained pacifist and anti-militarist messages. Hitler's admiration for Wagner has been much exaggerated; there's some evidence that he preferred Bruckner.) Weiner's basic misunderstanding of Wagner's ideas suggests limited acquaintance of, or understanding of, the texts he's attacking. And his arguments are of a standard you'd expect to find in alien abduction books, not scholarly texts. For example, on page 90 he argues that his "Aryan" characters are associated with noble animals, including the "magic, superior dragon". On page 91 he remembers that Alberich*, who Weiner thinks is an antisemitic caricature, is associated with dragons because he once turned himself into one. So only a page later Weiner calls dragons ignoble "inferior" animals, because that suits his argument. Similarly, "ravens" are noble and therefore Aryan, according to Weiner, when they are associated with Wotan; but he forgets that in "Meistersinger" Walther compares Beckmesser to a raven. If Weiner's "rule" about animals is correct, then Walther is labelling Beckmesser as Aryan. But Weiner's "rules" are the intellectual equivalent of paper tissues; you use them once and then throw them away. (*As early as 1907 George Bernard Shaw pointed out, correctly, that Alberich is a Nibelung, one of an exploited people who work hard in mines and factories; he represents the working class. 19th century antisemites didn't think that Jews were exploited manual labourers. The Nibelungs aren't Jews.) Weiner consistently makes up rules, then discards them after one use. For example, a rule for spotting "Jewish" characters, says Weiner, is that they have poor eyesight. Mime, in "Siegfried", is described by Siegfried as having dripping eyes. I read that as Mime crying to try to win Siegfried's sympathy, but yes, he _might_ have poor eyesight. But Wotan appears in "Siegfried", in disguise, and meets Mime and Alberich (supposedly "Jewish") and Erda (supposedly "Aryan"). Mime takes a while to recognise Wotan, as does Erda; but sharp-eyed Alberich penetrates the disguise immediately. Logically that should make Mime and Erda (an earth goddess and former lover of Wotan) Jewish, and Alberich Aryan; but Weiner won't apply his "rule" when it doesn't suit him. Moving to "Meistersinger", Weiner's now forgotten the rule completely, because in Act II Eva disguises herself as her maid Magdalena. Walther, a hero, is fooled until she gets close; Beckmesser is likewise fooled. So is Eva's father Pogner. Sharp-eyed David sees through the disguise immediately. So are they all Jews except David? No, because Weiner's rules apply only when he wants them to. He concludes that only Beckmesser is Jewish. (Beckmesser is the Marker, one of the most respected positions in the Mastersingers, not an outsider from a ghetto. He is the Town Clerk of 16th Century Nuremberg, which is not a town that appointed Jewish Town Clerks. And he is the favoured suitor to win the hand of a rich Christian merchant's daughter, before Walther comes along, without race or religion being an issue. Beckmesser, respected citizen and eligible bachelor - if a little old - is not a Jewish caricature or character, on perfectly clear and unambiguous factual grounds.) But Weiner's not interested in facts. Two more examples. Jewish characters, says Weiner, sing high. So does that make the heroes Walther, Siegfried and half the Valkyries Jewish? No: only Mime, and, oddly, the baritones Beckmesser and Alberich, who aren't higher than Wotan. And he "forgets" to mention Hagen, Klingsor and Kundry, because though he wants to claim them as Jewish, they sing low. Another Weiner "rule"? Jews sing coloratura, while Aryans sing straight. The rule "proves" Beckmesser is Jewish: he sings coloratura. But so does Brunnhilde in "Siegfried", so is she Jewish too? No, Weiner doesn't apply the "rule" then. And so on. He also claims, falsely, that these incoherent "rules" of Weiner's were understood in Wagner's day. Since they aren't rules at all, they weren't, of course. He brings forward no evidence to support this claim. And yet there are ample records of contemporary reviews of Wagner's operas, which show that, contrary to Weiner's claim, it never occured to Wagner's contemporaries that his operas contain secret antisemitic messages. I suspect Weiner knows that, because he must have looked through when trying to find something he could quote to support his case; and the silence there is eloquent. In short this is a silly book, intellectually startling, but not in a good way. It's interesting in the way very bad films are interesting, and a must for bad-argument fans, but it's profoundly dishonest and unreliable as a guide to Wagner. This is not to say that Wagner was not antisemitic; of course he was (Jacob Katz's "Wagner: The Dark Side of Genius" is a far better book that exposes and condemns Wagner's antisemitism). It is only to say that Wagner had the artistic judgement to keep his cranky and bigoted side out of works that he wanted to have some claim to universality. He was a shoddy human being but a supreme artist. Laon
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Keew da Vagnah!,
This review is from: Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination (Texts and Contexts) (Paperback)
The title of this review is perhaps appropriate, as only one with the approximate intelligence of Elmer Fudd would give any merit to this convoluted, highly questionable stab at serious scholarship. And no, I'm not a hopeless Wagnerian who tailgates at the elitist festival at Bayreuth or who owns 50 different copies of Die Feen on CD. Wagner's anti-Semitism was real enough, but this book goes so far over the deep end that in the end it actually comes close to redeeming the accused (to a certain extent). While not as obviously venomous as Paul Lawrence Rose's Wagner: Race, Revolution & Redemption, RW & the Anti-Semitic Imagination is just as questionable. Weiner's thesis is that all of the unpleasant characters in Wagner's later operas, with their appearance, smells & voices, are clandestine Jews. Weiner uses such airtight evidence as using another composer's (Mussorgsky) alleged anti-Semitic work to prove that Wagner was doing the same. I hope Mr. Weiner is never my attorney. One of Weiner's favorite examples in trying to prove his thesis is The Ring's Alberich. Alberich is short, ugly, greedy, manipulative, and cruel to his own race. According to Weiner, this is proof positive that this character is a metaphor for Jewish people. Well....the Nibelungen, the race that Alberich enslaves with the ring & is a member of, were peaceful & not portayed by Wagner in a bad light before Alberich used the nasty little trinket. I suppose it never occurred to Weiner that the Nibelungen were depicted as dwarves in the saga centuries before Wagner even set the tale to music. Of the Nibelungen, only Alberich, Mime, and Hagen are shown as ruthless. The rest are downtrodden. Incidentally, Alberich is the only major character to survive the whole Ring cycle. If Wagner had truly genocidal feelings towards this metaphor, surely he would have had Wotan spear him in Rheingold. Secondly, Weiner claims that Wagner had Hegelian notions of "the East" being a place of degeneracy and fear, while "the West" was enlightened. However, anyone who knows even a little about Wagner knows that Schopenhauer was a much bigger influence on his thinking than Hegel ever was. What were those statues of Buddha doing at Wahnfried? Why exactly did Wagner become a vegetarian? What is the entire premise of Tristan und Isolde? It was Schopenhauer's love of Eastern thought (primarily Buddhism) that motivated Wagner to formulate such things. Buddhist resignation, rather than any Teutonic drive to conquer, is at the heart of Wagner's later masterpieces. If you want some good books that deal specifically with Wagner's anti-Semitism, I suggest Ring of Myths and/or The Darker Side of Genius. Unfortunately, both of these books are a little over Elmer's head.
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