A Jewish author due to speak about Richard Wagner's antisemitism at the opening of this year's Bayreuth Festival has accused organisers of reducing attempts to confront the composer's legacy "to absurdity" after his talk was cancelled.
Michel Friedman, a German author, television presenter and former politician, had been scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Wagner, antisemitism and historical memory at the opening gala of the festival's 150th anniversary celebrations in Bavaria next month.
The event, titled Silenced Voices, was postponed this week due to “security concerns”, according to the Bayreuth city council.
However, Friedman told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that no terrorism threat had been made against the festival and questioned whether organisers had ever intended for the event to take place.
“The soil in Bayreuth is contaminated,” Friedman said. “This cancellation has reduced the seriousness of engaging with the antisemite Wagner to absurdity … In a democracy, cancelling events for security reasons is tantamount to committing suicide.”
Friedman cast doubt on whether the festival organisers ever intended for the event to take place.
He added: “I don't like it when the public and I are taken for fools. It turns out no advance ticket sales were launched for an event of 1,500 people, as is customary for all other major events … that shows that the decision as to whether to go ahead with the event at all has long been in doubt.”
Festival organisers are yet to comment on the claims.
Bayreuth city council said budget pressures had already enforced cuts to this year's programme, including a planned drone show and street art project.
The opening gala, which traditionally attracts high-profile guests including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was also postponed because of security concerns.
In 1850, Wagner published Jewishness in Music, attacking Jewish composers including Felix Mendelssohn and accusing Jews of corrupting German culture.
In one of its most notorious passages, he wrote that Jews could only redeem themselves through “self-annihilation”. Several figures in some of his most well-known operas have been accused of embodying antisemitic caricatures.
The composer's legacy was later embraced by Adolf Hitler, who described Bayreuth as the place where Germany's “spiritual sword” had been forged.
Friedman, whose parents and grandmother were rescued from Auschwitz by Oskar Schindler, said he regarded Jewishness in Music as “one of the most antisemitic texts ever written” and had agreed to participate “so that the Wagner family's history of antisemitism does not have the last word”.
Ludwig Spaenle, Bavaria's antisemitism commissioner, said he was working with organisers to find a solution.
He told The Times: “It must be possible to ensure security for the Silenced Voices memorial event. The question of whether the organisers of the festival are sufficiently engaging with Wagner’s antisemitism is difficult given the historical baggage associated with the Grüner Hügel [the site of the opera house].
“Efforts are being made to address this issue but a commemorative event such as Silenced Voices would have offered a particular opportunity to do so.”
The JC has contacted festival organisers for comment.
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