Bayreuth festival cancels lecture on Wagner’s antisemitism over ‘security concerns’

The Bayreuth Festival, held annually to celebrate the works of Richard Wagner, has cancelled a lecture which was specifically intended to address the composer’s notorious antisemitism, citing “security concerns”.

As reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Jewish author and broadcaster Michel Friedman was due to give a speech at a memorial concert, “Silenced Voices”, to be held on the morning of 26 July, immediately ahead of the opening of the festival itself later that day. However, the Bayreuth festival itself has since announced the cancellation of the earlier event.

Speaking to Bavarian Broadcasting, the interim managing director of the Bayreuth Festival , Heinz-Dieter Sense, said that it was “impossible to manage the highest security level in the Festspielhaus twice in a row. The time between the end of the morning performance and the start of the afternoon performance is too short.

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Given the current global situation, everyone is being extremely cautious. If no one can guarantee that it’s feasible, then I can’t hold the event.”

However, Friedman himself furiously condemned the decision, telling the Süddeutsche Zeitung that “the seriousness of confronting the anti-Semite Wagner is rendered absurd by this cancellation…cancelling events for security reasons is suicide in a democracy”.

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The German TV host rejected claims that Bayreuth was unable to provide adequate security for the event, saying that the festival should provide it and “save yourselves all the Sunday sermons.”

The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that this year marks the 150th anniversary of what has become an internationally famous festival, with the original iteration begun by Wagner himself. Despite being helped earlier in his career by famous German-Jewish composers, Wagner’s antisemitism was notorious. In an 1850 treatise, Das Judenthum in der Musik (Judaism in Music) Wagner claimed that Jewish people were inherently incapable of producing genuine German art, claiming their music was superficial and that as outsiders to German culture, any contributions Jews could make were merely superficial. Wagner originally published the essay under a pseudonym, later writing to fellow composer Franz Lizst that he had done so “not out of fear, but to prevent the question being dragged down by the Jews to a purely personal level”.

Widely celebrated during his own life, Wagner’s music and the Bayreuth festival is further complicated by its subsequent close association with the Nazi regime. Hitler was a devotee of Wagner’s work and a strong supporter of the Bayreuth festival. The British-born Winifred Wagner, Richard Wagner’s daughter in law, who ran the festival from 1930-1945, was a close friend of Hitler.

In recent years the festival has made significant efforts to address both Wagner’s antisemitism and the Nazi link. Its Richard Wagner museum directly addresses the composer’s antisemitism, while a “Silenced Voices” exhibition on the Bayreuth site commemorates Jewish participants in the festival prior to Hitler’s rise, who were murdered or persecuted by the Nazis.