Elisabeth Schwarzkopf dies at age 90

[Helene]

Michael H. Kater wrote an article on Schwarzkopf that appeared in today's Guardian:

Triumph of the wilful

[sandik]

Michael H. Kater wrote an article on Schwarzkopf that appeared in today's Guardian:

Triumph of the wilful

What a wonderful title!

This discussion is so fascinating, in part because it gets to the heart of why we are all here. Art, whether it's dance or music or painting or streetcorner rapping, has the capacity to both cut to the deepest parts of our psyche and to connect us with other people at that level. Art is dangerous, and art is important, and our responses to it and to each other are governed as much by our instinctual selves as they are by our reason or our understanding of the world.

Interesting that someone (Helene, I think -- I can't page back far enough) mentioned Jerome Robbins earlier, since he also testified in front of HUAC, and inspires the same winceing response in many people. They can admit to the quality of his work, but cannot get past the person that made them. Others, some who lived through the same difficult times, and some whose knowledge of them is only theoretical, make their own peace with him.

As I (frequently!) tell my 12 y.o., explanations aren't excuses, but they are explanations. And as a sometimes historian, I like to know the stories -- I like to know the explanations.

[bart]

This IS a damning account -- much beyond what I'd read before. About the author:

Michael H Kater is the author of The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich (Oxford University Press).

This book looks well worth investigating.

Any new thoughts, in the light of this article?

[canbelto]

Great article, Helene. Thanks for posting it.

This is going to take me back to Elia Kazan. I think what I find so disturbing about people like Kazan and Schwarzkopf (and Thomas Jefferson, for that matter) is that so much ugly behavior I often attribute to ignorance. Therefore, it really upsets me to the core when someone is obviously intelligent, thoughtful, yet behaves reprehensibly.

For instance, Elia Kazan. His movies seem to indicate a person of great insight and compassion. He was able to draw out incredible performances from actors, and there are moments in his movies that never fail to touch me. The scene where Marlon Brando gently urges Eva Marie Saint to sip a beer, for instance. So it upsets me a lot to know that this person sold out his friends and colleagues, all for the sake of "business." And what's more, he wrote a long (and IMO disingenuous) defense of himself in the NYTimes, in his book, and finally on the Oscar stage so many years later, he still seemed unrepentant. So it bothers me. East of Eden, Streetcar Named Desire, and On the Waterfront are some of my favorite movies. But I feel what he did was wrong, and nothing's going to change my mind.

I think I feel the same way about Schwarzkopf. This was an intelligent woman, obviously well-educated. She is not a personal favorite of mine, simply because I don't really like the sound of her voice. But her behavior bothers me a lot on a personal level. Artists like Hilde Gueden were actually approached by the S.S. for their Jewish background. Gueden supposedly had a passport that claimed she was a Polish Catholic. But my point is, artists suffered because of people like Schwarzkopf. Even Richard Strauss's family was tormented (and some of his family were actually interned) because Strauss was not obsequeous enough for the Nazis. And there were those artists (like Wilhelm Furtwangler, Clemens Krauss or Maria Reining) who personally helped endangered artists. Their acts of kindness were only exposed in later years. No one ever came forward and said Schwarzkopf helped him. From all accounts, this was a woman who played by the rules and was unrepentant to her dying day.

And to those who say that totalitarian regimes often brings out the worst in human nature, I'd say that's probably true, but there are always the people who perform acts of personal kindness and courage. For example, my grandfather was an interpreter for the Japanese and he was stationed in China during WW2. He never sent a penny of his salary back home to his family, because he gave it all away to families in need. He found every way to exonerate people. I'd say he was a special person, but he wasn't alone. I think he was/is one of many people who don't lose their sense of morality even under harsh circumstances. Therefore I don't give Schwarzkopf a pass for her behavior. I do always have an "ick" feeling when I listen to her. But that's just me.

[dirac]

Kater’s worth reading. Not the world’s greatest writer but he knows his stuff.

Schwarzkopf was perhaps displeased with being at the Deutsche Oper, and would have preferred to be at Goering's more highly regarded Staatsoper.

Schwarzkopf was either displeased, or she wasn’t. Speculation.

.

The minister was in the habit of sleeping with the young starlets, and there have been those who claim he had an affair with Schwarzkopf as well, though this has never been proved.

Innuendo. “Those who claimed”? “Never been proved”? Pleeze.

Of course, one reason we’re arguing about this is the fact that musicians in general were very highly regarded during the Reich. There was a growth spurt in music schools and groups. Hitler made a point of supporting and encouraging amateur musicians. It grieves me to have to say anything nice about the Nazis, but there it is.

[Helene]

The minister was in the habit of sleeping with the young starlets, and there have been those who claim he had an affair with Schwarzkopf as well, though this has never been proved.

Innuendo. “Those who claimed”? “Never been proved”? Pleeze.

If true, it would give a more sympathetic context for Schwarzkopf doing what she needed to get away from him.

[dirac]

I agree – but I think for many people the insinuation, without any context, might cast her in an even more negative role, that of Casting Couch Nazi Slut. But I was bothered more by his phrasing.

[Anthony_NYC]

Kater has written several excellent books about musicians in the Third Reich. He's undoubtedly the world's great expert on the subject.

Several years ago, I had brief e-mail correspondence with him (professionally related--he was well extremely helpful with some information about Thomas Mann, so he knows about more than just musicians). He told me that his dedication to the subject of the Third Reich and its crimes undoubtedly stems from his having been the son of a Nazi. After the war, his family moved away from Germany (to the U.S., if I recall correctly). Kater was three; he now lives and teaches in Canada.

All of which I mention because this man who cannot in any way be held responsible for the crimes Germany committed, yet the mere accident of his birth has made him feel a pressing moral obligation to seek out and speak the truth. If he occasionally overstates his case or seems too eager to condemn, I find the impulse behind that far more honest and honorable than Schwarzkopf's, who just denied denied denied out of pure self-interest.

And yet, I adore her recordings!

Last night I found myself completely absorbed in PBS's "American Masters," about the complicated relationship between Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller, and how it and the politics of their time gave rise to their work. Viewed from inside that story, it would indeed be difficult to enjoy Kazan's movies. But Miller's biographer points out--perceptively, I think--that they and Miller's plays have outlived the specifics of their genesis to acquire a timeless truthfulness. It is an unsettling thought.

[bart]

Thanks, Anthony, for those comments about Kater. I now definitely want to get his book.

[ ... ] Miller's biographer points out--perceptively, I think--that they and Miller's plays have outlived the specifics of their genesis to acquire a timeless truthfulness. It is an unsettling thought.

Maybe that's one of the qualities of serious art -- and one of its triumphs: To survive and transcend the often slimey conditions under which it was created.

[Paul Parish]

Well, I think he has it both ways --

At the very end of the article, he blames Schwarzkopf for marrying a Jew (Walter legge, who anybody who knows anything about their relationship will understand was to her an artistic director, at a smaller level as Balanchine was to Farrell).

Whatever Goebbels was to Schwarzkopf, can anybody imagine that she'd want to talk about that? This is prurient interest.

[dirac]

Well....Kater is really reporting the sentiments of Rudolf Bing, although he does seem to be implicitly endorsing them. But this line of thought takes the low road, I concur.

[Helene]

Well....Kater is really reporting the sentiments of Rudolf Bing, although he does seem to be implicitly endorsing them. But this line of thought takes the low road, I concur.

I disagree, because the standard line that has been reported over the years and in recent obituaries was that Bing banned her from the Met because she had joined the Nazi party. Kater's account of Bing tells a different story, one in which Bing no longer takes the high ground, but imposes a personal hierarchy of values. Frankly, if he had an issue with a member of the Nazi party and a Jew marrying, his beef should have been with Legge.