Jewish Difference and the Arts in Vienna: Composing Compassion in Music and Biblical Theater

by Caroline A Kita

This study “brings to life a circle of writers and composers, with analyses of their major, minor . . . and forgotten works of Jewish music theater” (Abigail Gillman, author of Viennese Jewish Modernism).During the mid-19th century, the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner sparked an impulse toward German cultural renewal and social change that drew on religious myth, metaphysics, and spiritualism. The only problem was that their works were deeply antisemitic and entangled with claims that Jews were incapable of creating compassionate art. By looking at the works of Jewish composers and writers who contributed to a lively and robust biblical theatre in fin de siècle Vienna, Caroline A. Kita shows how they reimagined myths of the Old Testament to offer new aesthetic and ethical views of compassion.These Jewish artists, including Gustav Mahler, Siegfried Lipiner, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Stefan Zweig, and Arnold Schoenberg, reimagined biblical stories through the lens of the modern Jewish subject to plead for justice and compassion toward the Jewish community. By tracing responses to antisemitic discourses of compassion, Kita reflects on the explicitly and increasingly troubled political and social dynamics at the end of the Habsburg Empire.

224 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 22, 2021

Reviews

[Perlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an outstanding exploration of how Jewish Viennese authors used art, music, and drama to defend Jews and Judaism from centuries-old hatreds. I read this as part of research for an article, and found her insights to be particularly resonant. Kita places each of the composers within his time, explains the artistic or theatrical work he was responding to, and what inspired him. I found the chapters on Beer-Hoffman and Zweig particularly touching, and was inspired by her depictions of the other authors, to want to read their works.