Richard Wagner in the Holy Land? Milo Rau brings Wagner’s music to Israel

On 24 October, Milo Rau’s production of Richard Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman will premiere at the iconic Deutsche Oper in Berlin.

Rau’s approach is radical: He‘s staging the opera by Wagner – who’s boycotted in Israel because of his Anti-Semitism – as a “road movie” through the history of Germany’s relationship with Israel, from the Holocaust to the present day.

Over the past weeks, Rau and his team have been conducting research in Israel, the Westbank and Gaza. Without any local institutional support, Wagner’s music was performed in the Holy Land!

At Jerusalem’s central railway station, in a kibbutz devastated on 7 October, in a Palestinian village terrorised by settlers, or on a hill overlooking Gaza: a whole series of discussions and performances took place.

WAGNER IN ISRAEL – THE BACKGROUND

An event in Jaffa ultimately led to a „breaking of a taboo“ (FAZ). The chairman of the Wagner Society publically asked to stop the ban against Wagner’s music.

Israeli theatre director Einat Weitzman and Palestinian artist Fidaa Zidan addressed the current human rights situation in Gaza. “Stop the music, so that we can hear the death toll in Gaza,“ Weitzman said.

“Controversy over Wagner Project,” read the headlines on SRF and Deutschlandfunk. The FAZ correspondent noted: “The real taboo is no longer Wagner, but talking about Gaza, the Palestinians and equal rights for all.”

“Performing Wagner anywhere other than in Israel is politically nonsense,” as director Milo Rau said to Haaretz, addressing the interconnections of trauma, guilt, and political responsibility.

PELICOT TRIAL WORLD TOUR

Before The Flying Dutchman premieres on 24 October, Raus productions are already touring the world.

The season 25/26 kicks off this evening with The Pelicot Trial in Copenhagen (Denmark) – all 500 tickets were sold out in 45 seconds, according to the theatre!

Next season alone, The Pelicot Trial will tour over 10 countries – including England, Italy, the Netherlands, Chile, Switzerland, Croatia, Malta and the US.

We’re happy to welcome you the coming weeks to the international tours of The Pelicot Trial, La Lettre, The Seer, Medea’s Children – and of course to The Flying Dutchman!