Mick Hartley

Layers of irony here. From Jewish News:

As reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Jewish author and broadcaster Michel Friedman was due to give a speech at a memorial concert, “Silenced Voices”, to be held on the morning of 26 July, immediately ahead of the opening of the festival itself later that day. However, the Bayreuth festival itself has since announced the cancellation of the earlier event.

Speaking to Bavarian Broadcasting, the interim managing director of the Bayreuth Festival , Heinz-Dieter Sense, said that it was “impossible to manage the highest security level in the Festspielhaus twice in a row. The time between the end of the morning performance and the start of the afternoon performance is too short.

“Given the current global situation, everyone is being extremely cautious. If no one can guarantee that it’s feasible, then I can’t hold the event.”

I assume by “the current global situation” he means because the speaker, Michel Friedman, isJewish.

However, Friedman himself furiously condemned the decision, telling the Süddeutsche Zeitung that “the seriousness of confronting the anti-Semite Wagner is rendered absurd by this cancellation…cancelling events for security reasons is suicide in a democracy”…

In recent years the festival has made significant efforts to address both Wagner’s antisemitism and the Nazi link. Its Richard Wagner museum directly addresses the composer’s antisemitism, while a “Silenced Voices” exhibition on the Bayreuth site commemorates Jewish participants in the festival prior to Hitler’s rise, who were murdered or persecuted by the Nazis.

Silenced voices indeed.