Sundown: Hate the Composer, Not the Music

• Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich wants the L.A. Opera to rethink its planned production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in 2010, citing the composer’s anti-Semitism. Director Plácido Domingo, however, is proud to encourage “intensive analysis and discussion.” [Jewish Journal]
• Plus more on Jewish composers: A Thai conductor muses on his love of Mahler, who “once said that he was three times an alien: a Bohemian in Austria, an Austrian among Germans, and a Jew in the whole world.” [Nation]
• “Nobody,” says New Voices, “debates the rock-star status of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the chain-smoking, Bhagavad Gita-quoting Jew at the helm of the Manhattan Project.” In honor of yesterday’s 64th anniversary of the first nuclear bomb test, some reminiscences about the man. [New Voices]
• Shockingly, Amy Winehouse—famous for autobiographical lyrics like “I told you I was trouble, you know that I’m no good”—and her husband are getting divorced. [Guardian]
• Having trouble in your marriage? Jerry Seinfeld’s seemingly horrific reality show, The Marriage Ref, is holding open casting calls. [NBC]