Language:
English
Year of publication:
1988
Titel der Quelle:
New German Critique
Angaben zur Quelle:
43 (1988) 35-68
Keywords:
Strauss, Richard,
;
Wilde, Oscar,
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
;
Antisemitism in music
Abstract:
Discusses Richard Strauss's adoption of Oscar Wilde's play "Salome" as the basis for the libretto of his opera (first performed in 1905). Surveys German and Austrian reactions to productions of Wilde's play. In the 1903 Vienna production, ugly Jewish characters were presented in mocking fashion, speaking Yiddish dialect ("Mauscheln"). Discusses the criticism of Friedrich Schutz, reviewer for the "Neue Freie Presse", who objected to this aspect of the play, and of Karl Kraus who defended the cultural avant-garde against Jewish reactionaries. Strauss's work was also criticized as the product of sick, homosexual, or Jewish art. In fact, he intended it for a mainly Jewish, avant-garde audience, portraying the Jewish characters by a howling cacophony of sound or a comic quintet of four high tenors and a low bass, reflecting current views of the Jew as feminine or sexually perverted. These references were acceptable to his self-hating German-Jewish audience, who projected them onto "Eastern" Jews, not identifying it with themselves.
Note:
On the libretto of Strauss's "Salome", its connection to Oscar Wilde's play, and its cultural, intellectual and political meaning.
URL:
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