Wagner, Cont.

I have nothing but the deepest compassion for letter writer Maurice Kornberg (Letters, July 29), whose family members were murdered by the Nazis. But his characterization of Siegfried as Wagner’s prototype of “the ideal human specimen” demonstrated his understandable unfamiliarity with the music and the story line of “The Ring of the Nibelungs.”

Far from an “ideal,” Siegfried as portrayed by Wagner is stupid, thoughtless, easily angered and more easily duped. If anything, his shortcomings in many ways mirror those of the one person Wagner knew and loved better than anybody else: himself.

MATTHEW B. TEPPER

North Hollywood

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I can assure your readers that Israel’s exceptional musical life and cultural creativity continue to thrive, even if the playing of Wagner’s music is limited to radio broadcasts!

The connection Mark Swed makes between playing Wagner and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems rather far-fetched, if not absurd (“Wagner’s Lesson, Unheeded,” July 22). Did the playing of Wagner in Nazi Germany, where Wagner was so admired, ever make that society sensitive, civilized or moral in any way? The Palestinian society, with whom we continue to try to live in peaceful coexistence, has not yet adopted basic values such as democracy and freedom. Should Wagner be their first priority?

Swed concludes that Israelis and Palestinians have “such difficulty listening to each other.” Listening is not the problem. The problem is that, as long as all we continue to hear is the sound of bombs of fanatic suicide-bombers, the cries of the dying and the wounded, the crash of splintered glass and the alarming sirens of the ambulances, even Wagner playing in the background will not propel us toward peace.

RAFI GAMZOU

Consul for cultural affairs

of Israel in the U.S., Los Angeles

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Swed’s glib statement that Wagner’s anti-Semitism is “inexcusable” does a grave disservice by glossing over historical reality. Inexcusable to whom and by what standards? To us and by ours, certainly. In hindsight, yes. But to Wagner and his times? Hardly.

The exquisite irony in all this is that what gets overlooked in the focus on Wagner’s anti-Semitism, both by the Nazis who glorified him and the Israelis who revile him, is the message that the operas themselves present to us. The stories concern the struggle of the individual against society. The message is that it is incumbent upon us, as individuals, not only to take action but to accept responsibility for the actions we take; that redemption is only possible through love, not blind love, which, like blind faith, can only lead to destruction, but a mature, clear-eyed, accepting love; that self-sacrifice is ofttimes necessary for the greater good. All of this is surely the absolute antithesis of Hitler’s “ein Volk.”

Wagner’s particular genius lay in showing us that the epic struggle of Good and Evil could not be sketched in black and white alone, but must include the myriad shades of gray in between.

THOMAS KITTREDGE

Palm Springs