Opera & Democracy: Listening to Exile

Image: 1014 – space for ideas

APRIL 18 | 6.30 PM

Please RSVP here. 

A Concert Series by Thomas Mann House with 1014 – Space for Ideas, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, Goethe-Institut New York, and Leo Baeck Institute. This series includes events on four days. The ACFNY event will take place on April 18, 2024. More information and tickets for the other events can be found here.

Four Days of Concerts and Talks

Freedom of the arts is essential for any democracy. But what role do the arts play when democracies come under pressure? Through four concerts and talks in New York City the program will indulge in the works and stories of composers who went into exile, it will share their music, and ask, how democracies and the arts relate today.

In cooperation with the Manhattan School of Music.

About the Concert at the ACFNY on April 18, 2023

CONCERT II: Schonthal, Zeisl

Ruth Schonthal: Princess Maleen (Excerpts)

Erich Zeisl: Hiob (Excerpts)

Musicians: Ellie Pope (soprano), Toby Banks (alto), Benjamin Warschawski (tenor), Benjamin Sokol (baritone) and Elliot Roman (piano)

Ruth Schonthal and Erich Zeisl will be presented in a concert at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York: Schonthal, who would have celebrated her 100th birthday in 2024, became an important figure in the New York music scene during her American exile. She composed several operas, including Princess Maleen, which will be heard in part. Zeisl, on the other hand, lived mainly on the West Coast, where he worked for the film and various educational institutions. Excerpts from his opera fragment Hiob, based on the famous novel by Joseph Roth and perhaps one of the most fascinating exile operas, will be performed next to Schonthal. Both works are largely unknown today, as are the biographies of their authors.