Many books have been written about Richard Wagner. Do we really need
another one? Yes, we do, for this one gives the reader, for the first
time, insight into a truly disturbing situation that exists in German
theaters today. Stage directors with fully booked calendars feel free to
lionize themselves with unchecked artistic freedom and disregard the
intentions of the composer and librettist, as well as the state
educational mandate and the high subsidies that support these theaters
financially. Swastikas are displayed in German opera houses, and Jews
are gassed on stage - yet an attorney general presented with a case
finds no legal basis to fight this. Journalists defend stage productions
like these with the paradoxical reasoning that this could actually
prevent the rise of neo-Nazism. To demonstrate how far this can go,
Bernd Weikl has developed his own fantasy concepts for the staging of
Wagner's music dramas, taking the nonsense now seen on German stages to
the absurd. Historical explanations of the German theater system and how
it is financed help the reader to understand how it has been possible
for this situation to arise, while an explication of the cultural
mandate as specified in the German Basic Law shows how puzzling it is
that this could happen at all. Background material stems not only from
Wagner himself and his widow Cosima, known for her virulent
antisemitism, and others of her generation, but from renowned authors
and media who claim to see a strong link between Wagner and Hitler.
Bernd Weikl, however, leaves no doubt that Wagner's works as written are
not antisemitic and therefore may not be presented as such. And he
stands with Irad Atir, who pleads for finally performing Richard
Wagner's works in Israel - in their pure form, of course.