ARTS
Images and language of the time
Barry Millington responds to last week's article about Wagner and anti-Semitism
here are the Jews in his works?' asks Michael Tanner with reference to Wagner's operas (Arts, 27 July). If he hopes to dispose of the problem of anti- Semitism in Wagner's works by means of such a naively posed question, he will be disappointed. Moreover, Tanner's 'protec- tionist' stance towards Wagner not only attempts to draw a decorous veil over a murky subject, but also betrays an igno- rance of the course of Wagner scholarship in recent years.
Flattering as it is to be described as 'the leading exponent of the theory that the operas are anti-Semitic', I must point out that a number of Wagner scholars have begun to examine the critical question of the extent to which the operas are coloured by the composer's anti-Semitic world view; indeed, whole conference was devoted to the subject last autumn at Columbia Uni- versity. In particular, Marc Weiner has Published a brilliant study (Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination, Universi- ty of Nebraska Press, 1995) demonstrating how Wagner was drawing on a language of stereotyped images that were patently anti- Semitic and recognised by 19th-century audiences as such.
My thesis, very briefly, is that anti- Semitism is woven into the ideological fab- ric of works such as Die Meistersinger, Parsifal and the Ring. This can be seen most clearly by comparing Wagner's char- acterisation of Beckmesser, the pedantic Marker in Die Meistersinger, with his image of the Jew in the notoriously anti-Semitic essay Das Judentum in der Musik (Jewish- ness in Music), which the composer had reprinted at the time of the Meistersinger premiere. Thus Beckmesser limps, shuffles, blinks, and proves totally incapable of real artistic creativity, or of matching words and music (prerogatives of the true German, according to Wagner). There is even a tell- tale pun (`Grimm-bewahre) in the relevant scene, alluding to the archetypal anti- Semitic folk-tale of the Grimm brothers, Der Jude im Dom (The Jew in the Thorn- bush) — not to mention Wagner's parody of Jewish cantonal style in Beckmesser's Serenade'. (For a full examination of the evidence, see my 'Nuremberg Trial: Is there anti-Semitism in Die Meistersinger?', Published in the Cambridge Opera Journal, November 1991.) The dwarf Mime in the Ring likewise conforms to the 19th-century anti-Semitic stereotype: he is ugly and crooked, with banging ears and dripping eyes. He too shuffles and blinks, jabbers excitedly and screeches at the top of his vocal range. Moreover, the music given Mime and his brother Alberich also draws on a common language: as Weiner shows, the fussy grace notes, repeated notes and abrupt sforzandi are all found, in very similar form, in Mus- sorgsky's musical portrayal of the Jews Goldenberg and Schmuyle in Pictures at an Exhibition. Hence the observation of Mahler, no less, that 'No doubt with Mime, Wagner intended to ridicule the Jews (with all their characteristic traits — petty intelli- gence and greed — the jargon is textually and musically [!] so cleverly suggested).'
The understanding that Wagner was drawing on an instinctive, inherited iconog- raphy and a well-recognised language of anti-Semitism is crucial. In the first place, it answers Tanner's objection 'Where are the Jews?'. Beckmesser, Mime and Alberich are not Jews: I have never suggested that Wagner's characterisation is so simplistic or blatant. But each of these characters has traits unmistakably drawn from a stock of anti-Semitic stereotypes, This also answers another frequently voiced objection. I have lost count of the number of times it has been triumphantly pointed out to me that a civic official in Beckmesser's position in mid-16th-century Nuremberg could not have been a Jew. Indeed, he could not, but Wagner's character does not occupy the dramatic role of a Jew — unlike, say, Shy- lock in The Merchant of Venice. He does, though, exhibit characteristics traditionally associated with Jews, and, since those char- acteristics are negative, the associations are inescapably anti-Semitic.
I wish I had a tenner, too, for each time I have been told that there is nothing anti- Semitic about the characterisation of Beckmesser because he stands in the tradi- tion of the befuddled, pedantic dottore of the commedia dell'arte, or the miles glorio- sus (the over-confident braggart soldier) of classical comedy. Well he might: Wagner was one of the best read of composers, and one of the most eclectic in his use of sources. But such allusions are not mutual- ly exclusive. In other words, the anti- Semitic tradition was one of many available to Wagner.
It should be clear by now that I do not regard Wagner's operas as exclusively defined by their anti-Semitic content. On the contrary, they — Die Meistersinger included — are gloriously rich creations of almost unfathomable complexity. I am also inclined to think that the images and lan- guage of anti-Semitism appear in them unconsciously as often as not. So indelibly engrained were such stereotypes in the 19th-century mentality that they came to form part and parcel of literary and dra- matic creations, even without the conscious awareness of the creator.
Works of art have, in any case, a certain degree of autonomy from the world view and intentions of their creator. Occasional- ly that subjectivity spills over into the work of art, but the connection is never a consis- tent one. One would hardly expect Wagner to draw attention to the points at which his subjective world view transgressed the boundaries of art. For all his desire to use his works as an instrument of social melio- ration, that would have offended all his instincts as an artist.
It should also be clear that I do not regard Wagner's anti-Semitism as anything like a unique phenbmenon. The 19th-cen- tury outlook was a predominantly anti- Semitic one, and it would be anti-historical to regard Wagner's obsession, pernicious as it was, as anything other than typical. Indeed, I have written elsewhere about the `demonisation' of Wagner, in that and other areas.
This is the one point on which Tanner and I seem to concur, though I would wish to distance myself from his protectionist stance. The questions surrounding the anti- Semitic content of Wagner's works — is it all-pervading? was it conscious? what are
the consequences for our appreciation of the operas? — need to be thoroughly investigated. Tanner, a Cambridge don, refuses to name the relevant studies (including Weiner's) in his new book (Wag- ner, published by HarperCollins at £16.99), and fails even to list the sources in his bibli- ography. Incredibly, he goes so far as to suggest that 'it would be better if they [such writers as Weiner and myself] kept the information to themselves'. Is this the way they teach at Cambridge these days?
Barry Millington is a music critic for the Times, Reviews Editor for the BBC Music Magazine and the author/editor of five books on Wagner.
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