Well, ok, not quite spilling into the streets, but there were some serious protests and charges of anti-Semitism leveled on the steps of the Los Angeles Music Center for the opening of the Ring. They did the same thing in SF on opening night of the 1985 Ring. Banners, bullhorns, screeds. It was the Schiller Institute and they are a very angry group of people.
Here's the article on the LA Time's blog, Culture Monster (from which the above photo was borrowed):
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/05/las-ring-cycle-begins-with-protests-outside-mixed-reaction-inside.html
The LaRouche brown shirts are behind it. His followers are verrrry creepy and angry. The really bizarre thing is that altho' they rail against what they perceive as anti-Semitism in Wagner, they appear to be over-the-top-Jews-want-to-rule-the-world conspiracy freaks - or, at least, LaRouche himself seems to be. Weird, angry people.
This is not to ignore the question of Wagner's anti-semitism, to be sure. But rants and screeds solve nothing and the Schiller Institute seems to be unwilling to engage in honest back and forth discussion. I approached one of the bull-horners at the 1985 SFO Ring and asked him if they'd be interested in a debate with the Wagner Society and gave him my card. I promised him that we'd engage in a fair debate. I never heard back from him.
What's bizarre to me is the the Schiller Institute theoretically espouses peace, love and equality and yet in my experience, they strike me as very fascist in their tactics. They don't want an honest discussion; they just want to drown out any opinions that aren't their own. Perhaps they should join forces with the Tea Baggers.
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