Cast
Yossi Beilin — Israeli politician and negotiator of the Oslo peace accords
Leon Botstein — President of Bard College; Conductor Laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra
John Louis DiGaetani — Wagner scholar
Asher Fisch — Israeli conductor
Robert Gutman — Musicologist and Wagner biographer
Uri Chanoch — Deputy Chairman, Central Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel
Jonathan Livny — President, Israel Wagner Society
Zubin Mehta — Music Director, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Dina Porat — Chief Historian, Yad Vashem; Professor, Tel Aviv University
Paul Lawrence Rose — Professor of European History and Jewish Studies, Pennsylvania State University
Jan Swafford — Brahms biographer
Program notes
The famous German composer of romantic operas Richard Wagner has aroused both the most unyielding passions and the fiercest hatred alike. Wagner's Jews by Hilan Warshaw focuses on the composer's complex relationships with his contemporary Jewish admirers and supporters.
Between myth and reality, this biographical documentary addresses the complex and controversial personality of the composer. Hilan Warshaw travels to Germany, Switzerland and Italy, where Wagner lived and worked. Backed by archives, reconstructions, interviews and performances of original pieces composed by contemporaries of Wagner, this film takes a documented look at the composer.
Wagner's Jews also discusses the debate about the representation of Wagner's works in Israel today.
Photo: Richard Wagner