Israeli orchestra to play Wagner

The Israeli Chamber Orchestra will play a piece by Richard Wagner on Tuesday, at a festival in Bayreuth, Germany. The 19th century composer entertained anti-Semitic views, and the Nazi party appropriated his work. No Israeli orchestra has ever played a Wagner piece in Germany.

Wagner was Hitler's favourite composer, and his music was appropriated by the Nazi party and extensively used in propaganda. Wagner's anti-Semitic writings also played a part in shaping Hitler's ideology. As a consequence, Israeli musicians almost never perform the composer's works. The Palestine Orchestra, which has since become the Israel Philharmonic, introduced a ban on the composer's works in 1938, a decade before the formation of Israel, as a result of the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.

The Israeli Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Roberto Paternostro, will play Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll", as well as works by Jewish composers, such as Gustav Mahler and Felix Mendelssohn. The concert is part of a fringe festival associated with the Bayreuth Wagner festival. Paternostro said in a press conference that it had been a "rocky path", but that he never had any doubts about the project. He added that he was aware it was not accepted in Israel, but that many people, particularly from the "younger generation", had told him it was time to "confront Wagner". The conductor is Jewish, and his mother was a survivor of the Holocaust. Paternostro agreed that it was too soon to play the composer's music in Israel and said that the orchestra had not rehearsed the piece there.

In the summer of 2001, Jewish conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle performed the overture from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" at the end of a Jerusalem concert. The conductor first announced the piece, adding that those who objected to the performance could leave. Some of the people in the audience protested and walked away, but those who remained gave the orchestra a standing ovation.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer, best known for his complex and powerful operas.  He influenced countless other composers, although he was also contested by some of his contemporaries. Wagner's most famous works include "Tannhaeuser", "Lohengrin", "Tristan und Isolde", "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg" and "Der Ring des Nibelungen" cycle. The Bayreuth Festival is held annually to celebrate Richard Wagner's music. The festival opened on Monday with a performance of Wagner's opera "Tannhaeuser". The Bayreuth Festival will close on 28 August.

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