FEUCHTWANGER PAGE (ZEISL ARCHIVES)
Below follow:
1) A letter of accpetance from Lion Feuchtwanger to a reception in honor
of Eric Zeisl before the performances of his opera, Leonce and Lena (Buechner)
at Los Angeles City College, 1952, and
2) a photo, possibly from the reception, showing Lion Feuchtwanger,
and to the right composer Eric Zeisl and wife, Gertrud Zeisl. The gentleman
at the left is the actor John Wengraf.
3) Gertrud Zeisl's (Mrs. Eric Zeisl's) aunt, actress on the Munich
stage, Mela Schwarz, later Mela Schweinburg, acted in the premiere of JUD
SÜSS in Munich during the First World War. She was , she writes in
red in the outside margin, Graziela, a neopolitan dancer and beloved of
both the Herzog and Jud Süss.
A scholar, Lothar Kahn, wrote to my great aunt, Mela Schwarz, requesting
she pen her memories of that première. Here follow Professor Kahn's
letter to my great-aunt, her fairly detailed, zesty response (the critique
called her piquant and reizvoll, and Mela comments that in today's language
she would be termed "sexy and groovy"! Mr. Kahn's thank you for the
info adn his agreement with her lively response, as well as her comment
on the outer edge in red that the Professor never returned the news critique
and photo of her she had sent him!
Then follows a letter of recommendation for the job as parlor maid
and ladies' maid Mela Schwarz had worked on in exile in London, a hard
life compared to the flashy life she had been used to as an actress on
the Munich stage as well as having been greatly loved by Robert Wiene,
director of the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Then, an earlier letter from Lion
Feuchtwanger to Mela Schwarz and his memory of her in the production of
Jud Suess:
1) ZEISL
:
2) Info on Mela Schwarz and Feuchtwanger's Jud Süss:
Should you be interested in further assistance, please contact:
zeisl@mindspring.com