Monday 24 February 2014

europe's troublemakers: anti-semitism and hungary: ivan fischer

A provocative series of 15-minute sketches of interesting Europeans on Radio 4 last week - and available on the BBC I-Player for the foreseeable future...
BBC Radio 4 - Europe's Troublemakers
BBC Radio 4 - Europe's Troublemakers - Episode guide

This was the first one - from last Monday:

Image for Hungary: Ivan Fischer

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Hungary: Ivan Fischer

Episode 1 of 5

In Hungary, she meets Ivan Fischer - the conductor and composer who is holding up a mirror to Hungarian society and using culture to expose growing racial intolerance. The success of the extreme right wing party Jobbik in the 2010 elections prompted him to write an opera denouncing anti-Semitism. Fischer's opera, The Red Heifer draws on an incident 130 years ago when a young girl went missing in a village in North East Hungary. Local Jews were accused of murdering the 14 year old and were eventually acquitted but blood libel stories such as these still resonate more than a century later. But some have accused Fischer of cultural politicking and say he is in danger of besmirching the country's image abroad. Lucy catches up with the composer as he rehearses for his next performance

BBC Radio 4 - Europe's Troublemakers, Hungary: Ivan Fischer

Ivan Fischer’s Opera ‘The Red Heifer’ Addresses Prejudice - NYTimes.com
Iván Fischer’s New Opera 'The Red Heifer' Fights Anti-Semitism in Hungary - Pizzicato : Pizzicato
Out of the shadows: Anti-Semitism in the streets of Hungary | Hate 2.0: Combating Right-Wing Extremism in the Age of Social Technology
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