Israelis to perform Wagner in Germany
Source: Agencies |
July 26, 2011, Tuesday
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AN Israeli orchestra will perform a work by Adolf Hitler's favorite composer, Richard Wagner, in a taboo-breaking concert in Germany.
The Israel Chamber Orchestra's concert in Wagner's hometown alongside the annual Bayreuth opera festival today will mark the first time an Israeli orchestra has played Wagner in Germany, Nicolaus Richter, the head of Bayreuth city's cultural affairs department, said yesterday.
The orchestra started rehearsing the Wagner piece, the Siegfrid Idyll, upon arrival in Germany on Sunday due to the sensitivities in Israel.
The concert is set to begin with Israel's national anthem, "Hatikva," and will also feature music by composers banned by the Third Reich, including Gustav Mahler and Felix Mendelssohn.
The orchestra will be led by Roberto Paternostro, whose mother survived the Nazi genocide. He is a friend of Katharina Wagner, a great-granddaughter of Wagner and co-director of the festival.
"About a year and a half ago Paternostro had contacted Katharina Wagner about the idea of performing during the Bayreuth Festival," Richter said. "Wagner thought it was a great idea, and it also is a sign of coming to terms with the past."
Orchestra Chief Executive Eran Hershkovitz said there is a "great pride and great excitement" for him and the 34 musicians of which some are children of Holocaust survivors.
"This is not just another concert. It is a once-in a lifetime concert, a victory concert," he said. "Because of the things that Wagner wrote, to come here, a group of Jewish musician from the state of the Jews ... it is best response and proof that they did not succeed and will not succeed."
The Israel Chamber Orchestra's concert in Wagner's hometown alongside the annual Bayreuth opera festival today will mark the first time an Israeli orchestra has played Wagner in Germany, Nicolaus Richter, the head of Bayreuth city's cultural affairs department, said yesterday.
The orchestra started rehearsing the Wagner piece, the Siegfrid Idyll, upon arrival in Germany on Sunday due to the sensitivities in Israel.
The concert is set to begin with Israel's national anthem, "Hatikva," and will also feature music by composers banned by the Third Reich, including Gustav Mahler and Felix Mendelssohn.
The orchestra will be led by Roberto Paternostro, whose mother survived the Nazi genocide. He is a friend of Katharina Wagner, a great-granddaughter of Wagner and co-director of the festival.
"About a year and a half ago Paternostro had contacted Katharina Wagner about the idea of performing during the Bayreuth Festival," Richter said. "Wagner thought it was a great idea, and it also is a sign of coming to terms with the past."
Orchestra Chief Executive Eran Hershkovitz said there is a "great pride and great excitement" for him and the 34 musicians of which some are children of Holocaust survivors.
"This is not just another concert. It is a once-in a lifetime concert, a victory concert," he said. "Because of the things that Wagner wrote, to come here, a group of Jewish musician from the state of the Jews ... it is best response and proof that they did not succeed and will not succeed."
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