Home
Politics
Wagner
"Amid concerns that reactions in Israel would be fiercely negative, the visit was cancelled," the paper wrote.
Calls to the Tel Aviv offices of the Israel Chamber Orchestra on Wednesday were not answered.
The ensemble said on Tuesday it had accepted an invitation to play at the festival next summer in a rare breach of an Israeli taboo against performing works by the rabidly anti-Semitic composer.
Since the Nazi Holocaust, musicians in what is now Israel have largely honoured an unwritten ban on performing pieces by Wagner, Adolf Hitler's favourite composer.
Many Israelis are Holocaust survivors and find the associations provoked by the music distressing.
Writing in the Yediot Aharonot daily on Tuesday, Holocaust survivor Noah Klieger called the orchestra's decision to participate at Bayreuth an "outrageous surrender."
"I have no idea who came up with this idea, but I do know that we must not allow this performance to take place," he wrote.
In 1991, Israeli composer Daniel Barenboim led the Berlin State Opera in a performance of an excerpt from "Tristan und Isolde" in Tel Aviv, prompting catcalls and a walkout by several members of the audience.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Calls to the Tel Aviv offices of the Israel Chamber Orchestra on Wednesday were not answered.
The ensemble said on Tuesday it had accepted an invitation to play at the festival next summer in a rare breach of an Israeli taboo against performing works by the rabidly anti-Semitic composer.
Since the Nazi Holocaust, musicians in what is now Israel have largely honoured an unwritten ban on performing pieces by Wagner, Adolf Hitler's favourite composer.
Many Israelis are Holocaust survivors and find the associations provoked by the music distressing.
Writing in the Yediot Aharonot daily on Tuesday, Holocaust survivor Noah Klieger called the orchestra's decision to participate at Bayreuth an "outrageous surrender."
"I have no idea who came up with this idea, but I do know that we must not allow this performance to take place," he wrote.
In 1991, Israeli composer Daniel Barenboim led the Berlin State Opera in a performance of an excerpt from "Tristan und Isolde" in Tel Aviv, prompting catcalls and a walkout by several members of the audience.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
