Response to ‘Oppression is Intolerable’ letter | Letter

Published 6:54 pm Tuesday, December 6, 2011

This letter is a response to Zona McKenzie’s earlier letter entitled, “Oppression is intolerable, even in opera.”

I didn’t see the New York Met’s HD transmission of Siegrfried on Orcas, but I saw the previous installment of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Die Walkure, at the Lincoln Theater in Mount Vernon, and I plan to see the concluding segment, Gotterdaemerung, early next year. I thought the Met’s six-hour production of Die Walkure was thrilling from beginning to end, and I only wished it went on longer.

While I understand that Richard Wagner was a generally vile person (an extreme hedonist, narcissist and anarchist, in addition to his well known anti-semitism), the musical content of Siegfried is beautiful and inspiring. Last summer, the Israel Chamber Orchestra played the Siegfried Idyll in Wagner’s old inner sanctum in Bayreuth, Germany. That tells me that the key players in this drama have made their uneasy peace with history.

Like Zona McKenzie, I am keenly tuned to the scourge of anti-semitism in the arts, but I feel that we should pay attention to current international events, specifically in Israel, rather than attacking Wagner’s 135-year-old operas.

Gary Alexander

Lopez Island