# opera recordings from Germany 1933-1945



## battistini (Jan 22, 2021)

I'm Jewish and that is important for this discussion. I have recently been on a "Germans do Italian" bender. I newly appreciate Hilde Scheppan. Holge Roesvange. Heinrich Schlusnus. Meta Seinemeyer (I think I finally hear why she is so great). Tiana Lemnitz. My favorite mezzo Margaret Klose.

Then I think of the circumstances these recordings were made in.

I used to classify singers as "Nazi" (like Franz Volker or Max Lorenz or Germaine Lubin) or "not Nazi" (like Lotte Lehmann famously). I had no good reason to believe these things, they were just impressions I had. Then I read about Max Lorenz, how he was very gay and his wife Jewish, how many times one or both with her mother might have been shipped to the death camps but for the intervention of Hermann Goering.

All of Germany was not "Nazi". Every person in Germany was not a war criminal. To condemn entertainers because Nazis enjoyed their performances isn't exactly fair, there were garbage men bakers and fisherman who had similar connections to Nazis.

There is a famous book on this subject called "Hitler's Muse". Unfortunately, if you look into it and expect to find person by person indictments Arendt-style, you will be disappointed.

Rasponi's book has an interesting interview with Victoria Urseleac (I think), in which she is a bitter critic of Lehmann and her vaunted anti-Nazi sentiment. The prima donna comes off as quite a Nazi. 

Does anyone have thoughts about specific vocalists? It's a difficult subject, I have trouble even discussing the Holocaust let alone aportioning guilt. The Allies conducted war crime trials and a de-Nazification process that presumably should have allowed Germans to "start fresh". Lorenz, well known to be Hitler's favorite tenor, was fogotten as a result and retired without any fanfare or notice though he had been the equal (to some) of Lauritz Melchior. And he was certainly innocent of anything except trying to stay alive in the Bayreuth island, apparently a wild "for tomorrow we may die" community. My knowledge is entirely approximate and based on innuendo feel free to correct me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

There have been debates here about this or that musician who joined the Nazi party or had Nazi sentiments. You can expect disagreement about who did what and how much it matters. We've also had broader discussions of antisemitism which have turned contentious. 

The recent decision by the administrators of TC to keep politics off the forum makes this area of inquiry at least somewhat perilous. We may be safe if everyone can keep the discussion to bare facts, insofar as we know them, and resist the temptation to "apportion guilt." I for one have little interest in anyone's "person-by-person indictments" of talented people we have much better reasons to remember.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Many employs hate their employers but they are pretending sympathy, love or admiration for them. At the worst cases they tolerate them, because they don't want to be without job. This is my answer to such issues.


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## battistini (Jan 22, 2021)

I searched for threads about specific vocalists but couldn't find them can you direct me?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

battistini said:


> I searched for threads about specific vocalists but couldn't find them can you direct me?


Offhand, I can't. I'm no good at searching the forum, and I find the search function rarely gets me what I want. Probably the singer most discussed here with reference to her Nazi connections is Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Conductors, too, have been discussed, particularly Karajan and Reginald Goodall. I can't say much more, since I tend to avoid these discussions. Maybe someone else can help you.


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