Israeli broadcaster apologises after playing Richard Wagner opera

Hundreds of listeners lambaste 'Kan' radio after classical music from Hitler's favourite composer was aired on Friday

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan has apologised to the nation after a musical director “erred” in choosing to play the music of Richard Wagner.

Hundreds of listeners lambasted bosses at the broadcaster’s classical music radio station, ‘Voice of Music,’ after a segment from Wagner’s Goetterdaemmerung (Twilight of the Gods) opera was played on Friday.

Wagner was an unapologetic anti-Semite and Hitler’s favourite composer so there has been an unofficial ban on his music in Israel for years, out of respect to the sensitivities of Holocaust survivors.

A spokeswoman for Kan said: “The directives of the Israeli broadcasting corporation have remained as they were for years: Wagner’s music won’t be played on Kan, out of an understanding of the pain such a broadcast would evoke among the Holocaust survivors in our audience.”

She added: “The editor erred in his artistic choice to play the piece, and it was a wrong public decision. We apologise to our listeners.”