The Reich Chamber of Culture used the “German national opera” heavily in their propaganda. Music from the opera was used in the “inaugural celebrations of the Third Reich in 1993” and in propaganda films by Leni Riefenstahl. Wilhelm Furtwängler also conducted Die Meistersinger on film “to symbolize the greatness of Germany’s war effort”, and it was the only opera played at Wagner’s theatre in Bayreuth during World War II (Service). The opera’s widespread use by the Reich Chamber of Culture to promote the Third Reich tightly linked it to these dark times, both nationally and internationally.
Not all parts of the opera were emphasized as much by the Nazis as later scholars thought. The controversy that Beckmesser represented the Jewish race and anti-Semitic thoughts was not created by the Reich Culture Chamber. This claim has been investigated, and so …show more content…
So, they started rebranding it as part of the “new German culture”. Bayreuth performed Die Meistersinger in 1951 when it reopened its doors. The “naturalistic” set, however, was replaced with just a bare stage in an attempt to “lay to rest… the dragon of Nazi misappropriation” and depoliticize the work. They even put up a poster declaring: “In the interests of a smooth operation of the festival we request visitors kindly to refrain from conversations and discussions of a political nature on the Festspielhaus hill” (Carnegy 313). Bayreuth went to such great lengths because, like the rest of Germany, they needed to show that they were changing. They needed to show that the Germans were not just performing for themselves, but for the whole world. Everyone still enjoyed the music and operas that had been playing for decades, however, so they just brought them to the other side of the musical “zero hour” with enough differences to hide the fact that it was essentially the same music as
Not all parts of the opera were emphasized as much by the Nazis as later scholars thought. The controversy that Beckmesser represented the Jewish race and anti-Semitic thoughts was not created by the Reich Culture Chamber. This claim has been investigated, and so …show more content…
So, they started rebranding it as part of the “new German culture”. Bayreuth performed Die Meistersinger in 1951 when it reopened its doors. The “naturalistic” set, however, was replaced with just a bare stage in an attempt to “lay to rest… the dragon of Nazi misappropriation” and depoliticize the work. They even put up a poster declaring: “In the interests of a smooth operation of the festival we request visitors kindly to refrain from conversations and discussions of a political nature on the Festspielhaus hill” (Carnegy 313). Bayreuth went to such great lengths because, like the rest of Germany, they needed to show that they were changing. They needed to show that the Germans were not just performing for themselves, but for the whole world. Everyone still enjoyed the music and operas that had been playing for decades, however, so they just brought them to the other side of the musical “zero hour” with enough differences to hide the fact that it was essentially the same music as