Don Firth: Calling Beethoven "Nazi music" is bizarre, but Wagner is a delicate case, because he actually was a vile antisemite, and it is pretty clear that if he was not a Nazi it was only because he did not live long enough. I have seen a quotation from him that could have come straight out of _Mein Kampf_. Understandably, for a long time it was impossible to perform his operas in Israel; but in recent years, I have read, it has happened.

--- Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||: Mass entertainers have all the vices of politicians, and none of the excuses. :||