In the concluding scene of Richard Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” which will be performed at the Metropolitan Opera this month, the opera’s hero delivers a powerful monologue extolling the virtues of “Holy German Art” in the face of foreign influences. At the 1924 Bayreuth Festival — the first since the outbreak of World War I — the audience leaped to its feet and chanted the first three verses of “Deutschland über Alles.” In response to this interruption, Karl Singer, a conductor who attended the performance, wrote that “a hidden hand has ensured that the aura of the Festival shifts from the artistic to the political.”
That anecdote, which highlights the artistic and political tensions in Wagner’s most popular opera, is related in Brigitte Hamann’s “Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler’s Bayreuth,” a new biography of Wagner’s British-born daughter-in-law who was in charge of the Bayreuth Festival from 1930 to 1945. Winifred was known as “The First Lady of the Reich,” because of her close friendship with the Fuhrer, who brought the festival to the center of German cultural life during the war. A look at scholarly debates surrounding “Die Meistersinger” reveals how difficult it is to parse out a discussion of the opera from the broad vilification of Wagner as Hitler’s composer.
Perhaps more than any of Wagner’s operas, “Die Meistersinger” is burdened by the legacy of the Third Reich. The sole comedy of Wagner’s mature operas, it tells of a young knight who challenges the musical establishment (represented here by the Mastersingers) and wins himself a bride. Wagner wrote “Die Meistersinger” as a “popular” opera, yet weaved into it arguments about art and politics. In the postwar period, much of the attention paid to “Die Meistersinger” has been motivated by the esteem in which the Nazis held the opera. Goebbels called the work “the incarnation of our Germanness,” and the overture was often performed at Nazi Party congress meetings. Hitler claimed to have seen the work more than 100 times, and demanded that it be performed as a morale booster toward the end of the war.
In the opera, Wagner dramatized his personal struggle with the musical establishment for recognition. By universal consent, the buffoonish character of Sixtus Beckmesser represents the strict traditionalism against which Wagner saw his musically daring aesthetic working. What is less evident is the extent to which Beckmesser is a stand-in for the stereotypical Jew. Indeed, while some have gone back to the libretto in search of clues about Wagner’s antisemitism, others say that the link between the two has been blown out of proportion.
Beckmesser actually has a real-life counterpart: Eduard Hanslick, a conservative Viennese music critic. Hanslick was only nominally Jewish (his mother had converted to Catholicism before he was born), but represented for Wagner everything that was wrong with music criticism — a field dominated mostly by Jews — in the mid-19th century.
In “Music Criticisms: 1846-99,” a selection of his critical writings (edited and translated by Henry Pleasants), he implies that Wagner’s attitude toward the Jews was hardly ideological: “Wagner couldn’t stand a Jew and consequently he developed the habit of regarding as a Jew anyone he didn’t like.”
Less ambiguously, Wagner scholar Barry Millington is convinced that “Anti-Semitism is woven into the [opera’s] ideological framework.” In a 1991 article, “Nuremberg Trial: Is There Anti-Semitism in ‘Die Meistersinger’?” Millington argues that Beckmesser inhabits the “scheming, pedantic and aggressively argumentative” qualities of a stereotypical Jew, and calls Beckmesser’s vocal style “a parody of the Jewish cantorial style.” This line was developed by Marc Weiner, who, in his book “Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination,” argued that in the character of Beckmesser, Wagner dramatizes “the Jew’s inability to understand and to appropriate German art” — part of the composer’s overall argument that Jews can only be second-hand purveyors of culture.
Lydia Goehr, professor of aesthetics at Columbia University and author of “The Quest for Voice: Music, Politics, and the Limits of Philosophy,” said in an interview with the Forward that she finds it unlikely that “Die Meistersinger” — or any Wagner opera — is merely an antisemitic allegory: “If Wagner had really wanted to be antisemitic in his operas, why didn’t he make it more obvious?” she asked. Rather than read antisemitism into the conclusion, she sees it as directed toward the French, from whom the Germans borrowed much culture (with unease). In Wagner’s works generally, she contends, “the Jew less stands for the racial Jew than for the modern, or cosmopolitan.”
Both these elements inform the political argument of “Die Meistersinger,” and even Goehr acknowledged that it is difficult to divorce politics from the work’s aesthetic argument. “Wagner is arguing via aesthetic means for political principles,” Goehr continued. “It’s political in the sense that it’s arguing for notions of freedom, and for the role of art in the culture and for the importance of the revisability of rules.”
She had an answer, as well, for how to deal with the less savory characteristics of the libretto, including the final chorus: “Art is not meant to be there just to make you happy. Go enjoy the music, and realize that sometimes the beauty of the music conflicts with the awfulness of the text.”
A.J. Goldmann is a writer living in New York
The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, the Forward requires that all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate comments, the Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.
Copyright © 2013, Forward Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Claims Conference Chief Knew of $57M Holocaust Fraud Probe Earlier 
Top Dog: Who Makes the Best Kosher Hot Dog in America?
Why Do Jews Intermarry at a Much Higher Rate Than Others?
End Orthodox Monopoly on Jewish Marriage in Israel
Boston Bombers Pal Slain in Florida Eyed in 'Jewish' Triple Murder
You've successfully signed up!
I think this is from the Forward. A.
We fear that which we do not understand.
Charles Rosen demolished Barry Millington's argument years ago, by pointing out the difficulty of proving that Die Meistersinger is "infused with anti-Semitism" when, as Millington admitted, there is no evidence of it in the opera itself! A. J. Goldmann has it quite right in asserting that it was the Nazis who burdened Wagner, not the other way round. There may poetic justice here, in that Wagner was, at times in his life, an anti-Semite, at times viciously and unforgivably so. But can one listen to Hans Sachs's monologue at the beginning of the final act --- bittersweet, insightful into human frailty, yet hopeful about human potential --- without accepting that that humanity was somewhere in Wagner, too? Wagner's final work, Parsifal, is as complex and layered as Meistersinger, but its principal theme is repeated over and over --- that it is only through compassion that human wisdom is possible. Sometimes it is forgotten that the Nazis banned performances of Parsifal.
AJ. Goldman's comments are, by and large, a faithful reflection of the way I have felt about Wagner's operas since i began to form opinions about music. (I'm 65 and a Dane.)My favorite Wagner-related quote was, and in some cases still is, Woody Allen's about 'getting an irresistible urge to invade Poland after listening to him for half an hour. Until about 4 years ago, I had never attended a perfomrance of a Wagner opera, and had no plans to do so, and i was happy and comfortable with that position. However, cruel fate intervened, and I had to travel to Hamburg to hear Konwitschny's version of the Meistersinger in Hamburg; and that changed things. In that production, Konwitschny was able to wash the brown color out of the music for me. The way he handles the crucial moment of German patriotism... (and don't forget, the Horst Wessel Lied sometimes replaced DÜA) was by inserting a Brechtian Verfremdung instead, where the singers stepped out of their roles and had a discussion about whether it woud be possible to sing this kind of music today. I worked. Before that, the backdrop to the 3? act (after the fight) was the aerial photograph of Nurnberg taken after the bombardment of the city in 1945. check it out here: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,845515,00.html
My attitude to Wagner is similar to but not as extreme as that of Bruckner: Bruckner owned scores of Wagner but with no text. Bruckner adored the harmony and orchestration but had no interest in the story lines. Insofar as I pay attention to the stories I regard them as cut from the same stuff as Tolkein or Walt Disney and treat them as mere entertainment, or simply ignore them in favour of some harmonies to die for Incidentally Meistersinger bores me. Give me the Ring or Tristan or Parsifal. Wagner in my view was too pompous a jackass to ever master humour I do not know German and have no interest in learning it: besides what men sing about is usually so ridiculous that it is best kept in a foreign tongue where the music itself is not rendered trite nonsense by the words it accompanies. So unless I can be bothered straining to follow the translated libretto before me (I usually cannot) I do not know what they are singing about. My familiarity with music history shows what pompous twaddle Wagner's thought actually was. So I ignore it. I recommend this approach. There is enough to worry about in this world without looking for anti Jewish messages, real or imagined, who one who died before Hitler was even born
I'm fortunate in never having to face the conundrum confronted by Wagnerians who rightly dislike and despise their idol's views on race, politics and society. Why? Because I just don't like the music.Hanslick was right to prefer Brahms.
By sheer coincidence, I am reading this in Paris on Saturday March 10 evening, on the Arts & Letters Daily site, while listening at the same time to the very broadcast of DIE MEISTERSINGER on WQXR, direct from the Met. It is amazing that Mr. GOLDMANN focuses only on what is construed as the negative representation of a Jew in the opera, while in fact Wagner felt he was a revolutionary, hostile to the establishment, but at the same time, a strong nationalist, seeking moral strength in an idealized image of Germanness, not that much different from Verdi in many of his own nationalistic operas, or from a lot of Jewish culture seeking some kind of moral virtue in the idealized image of the Jewish community and history. The French, the British, and the Americans all share this attitude of glorifying their own national community over the rest of the world. Nothing really sick or different in Wagner's own attitude. There was anti-semitism in France, in Britain, and in the US as well. All countries in Europe (and in the US as well) were riding an immense cultural surge of nationalism. Israël has also been an outcome of the same surge. It 's easier to knock Wagner because of his immense visibility (and audibility): in his operas, everything is transmuted into a myth, and we have to take all his ideas with a grain of salt. He is anchored to his time, and it's grossly unfair to single him out as a moral monster, or even more absurdly picture him as Hitler's musician. And the text of his operas is far from awful. ROO, in Paris
Hans sachs was anti-semitic. Read his Boo of Trades and see the sketches therein.
Might I direct your attention to the following article on this business of anti-Semitic "coding" in _Die Meistersinger_ and other of Wagner's mature operas (music-dramas): http://www.soundsandfury.com/soundsandfury/2004/07/a_mind_is_a_ter.html ACD (A.C. Douglas)
I agree with Rene-Oliver's point that "It is amazing that Mr. GOLDMANN focuses only on what is construed as the negative representation of a Jew in the opera, while in fact Wagner felt he was a revolutionary, hostile to the establishment, but at the same time, a strong nationalist, seeking moral strength in an idealized image of Germanness, not that much different from Verdi in many of his own nationalistic operas, or from a lot of Jewish culture seeking some kind of moral virtue in the idealized image of the Jewish community and history." But, I am curious about the statement that "The French, the British, and the Americans all share this attitude of glorifying their own national community over the rest of the world." Could solid examples be provided so I can discuss this further at www.52Parties.com? -Kevin Ricche
Norman Levitt wrote: "What we revere in Beethoven is not only the craftsmanship of a great artisan but the man himself, meaning not the maimed character biography gives us, with all its flaws and neuroses, but the core of that man's soul with all its visionary power. [...] In the case of Wagner, a truly greedy, cowardly, and vindictive character left its stamp." ————————————————————————————- Mr. Levitt has his two composers mixed up. It's Beethoven, not Wagner, the core of whose soul could be described as "truly greedy, cowardly, and vindictive," and the core of Wagner's soul, rich in "visionary power." Of all composers, Wagner was perhaps the greatest humanist and idealist that ever lived, and his deplorable outward behavior a direct and outraged response to a real world that refused to comport with his (impossible) idealistic vision. I suggest to Mr. Levitt that he discard entirely his pop understanding of Wagner, and repair to reliable, pre-PC scholarly sources, Newman chief among them, for his information regarding Wagner the man. ACD
Wagner's output is chock-ful of anti-semitic caricature--it's not only Beckmesser in "Meistersinger." There's Klingsor in "Parsifal", as well as Mime in the Ring. I want to make a larger point, however, one based on my own, currently very unfashionable theory of the relation between a composer and his (pardon my sexism) music. Frankly, I think that skillful composers leave an indelible imprint of their own characters and moral traits in their work. What we revere in Beethoven is not only the craftsmanship of a great artisan but the man himself, meaning not the maimed character biography gives us, with all its flaws and neuroses, but the core of that man's soul with all its visionary power. This view was popular enough in the 19th century, but has since been declared hopelessly naive by generations of professors. I think they're wrong. In the case of Wagner, a truly greedy, cowardly, and vindictive character left its stamp. Even at its grandest and most enraptured, Wagner's music--not his text but his music itself--contains something sickly and corrupt at its core. It is paradoxically immensely powerful and, simultaneously, pathetically self-pitying and weak. "It smells of the sickroom", as Brahms rightly said. Which is why Verdi, despite his vulgar hurdy-gurdy tunes and overwrought plots, is ultimately the greater composer.
Says A.C. Douglas: "Of all composers, Wagner was perhaps the greatest humanist and idealist that ever lived, and his deplorable outward behavior a direct and outraged response to a real world that refused to comport with his (impossible) idealistic vision." How peculiar a definition of idealist and humanist! The man's idealism seems to have consisted of the belief that the world owed him an endless supply of money, women, and acolytes willing to be "faithful unto death" in the face of the Master's scorn and abuse. What kind of "humanism and idealism" is incarnated by Herr Wagner's ultimate hero, Siegfried--a crass, ignorant bully-boy whose "heroism" could be matched by any inveterate barroom brawler! I've always wondered how anyone culd listen to the "Forging Song" without bursting into laughter! Beethoven needs no defenders, of course, but, just to re-awaken your ear, I'll mention the Prisoners' Chorus and Florestan's aria from "Fidelio", the violin obligato in the "Benedictus" of the "Missa Solemnis", as well as the "Agnus Dei" and "Dona Nobis Pacem", The "Heiige Dankgessang" of the A-minor quartet, the slow movement of the "Hammerklavier", the opening fugue of the C#-minor quartet--but that's leaving out dozens of equally visionary moments. Against that, what? At best, the mewling, morbid narcissism of "Tristan"? Enough said. I think I have Wagner dead to rights.