A Conversation with Doris Berger, Hans Vaget, and Alex Ross, moderated by Lily E. Hirsch, with music performance by UCLA Professor of Piano Inna Faliks.
To honor Thomas Mann’s 150th birthday anniversary and to celebrate the West Coast premiere of Tod Machover’s opera, Schoenberg in Hollywood (which explores the hypothetical scenario of Schoenberg composing for Hollywood), this event will explore the fascinating and complex relationship between two key figures of the German-speaking émigré community and their relationship with the Hollywood film industry.
Schoenberg in Hollywood revolves around an historic meeting between the legendary producer Irving G. Thalberg of Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Arnold Schoenberg, arranged by Harpo Marx. In this meeting, Thalberg asked Schoenberg to compose music for a film based on Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth. While Schoenberg was intrigued by the prospect of creating a Hollywood film score that could reach millions, his demands for a $50,000 fee and total artistic control scuttled the project.
Meanwhile, Thomas Mann also pursued connections with Hollywood, exploring the possibility of adapting The Magic Mountain and his Joseph saga into films. But despite several discussions with producers and studios, these projects never came to fruition. Mann’s interest in cinema, however, extended far beyond personal ambition. His fascination with the medium dates back at least to 1924, as evidenced in his novel The Magic Mountain, in which the protagonist visits a film theater to watch Ernst Lubitsch's 1920 silent classic Sumurun. During his exile in Los Angeles, Mann developed a deep appreciation for the medium. He frequented his favorite theaters in Westwood, often attending screenings twice a week, and attended Hollywood film premieres. His diaries contain poignant, harsh, and humorous critiques of the films he watched. Mann also built relationships with prominent Hollywood figures, including Jack Warner, Walt Disney, Ernst Lubitsch, Alfred Hitchcock, and others, further cementing his connection to the cinematic world.
This event will delve into the multifaceted relationship between Thomas Mann and Arnold Schoenberg, exploring their Hollywood aspirations, their connections to the film industry, and the cultural exchange between émigrés and Hollywood. European exiled composers, such as Arnold Schoenberg and Franz Waxman, heavily influenced the genre of film music in the 1930s and 1940s. At the same time, Hollywood played a crucial role in supporting refugees, offering work contracts, necessary affidavits, and assistance through non-profit organizations like the “European Film Fund.”
The conversation will be accompanied by a short musical performance by acclaimed pianist Inna Faliks (UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music).
Participants:
Doris Berger is the Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. She was previously a Getty Postdoc Fellow, a Curator at the Skirball Cultural Center, and the Director of the Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany. Berger curated the touring exhibition Light & Noir: Exiles and Emigres in Hollywood, 1933-1950at the Skirball (2014–15). At the Academy Museum, she co-curated the inaugural exhibition Stories of Cinema and Backdrop: An Invisible Art (2021) as well as the touring exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 (2022-23). She co-edited the catalogue Regeneration and wrote the book Projected Art History: Biopics, Celebrity Culture, and the Popularizing of American Art (Bloomsbury, 2014) among numerous essays in German and English on art and film, gender and exile studies.
Lily E. Hirsch is a musicologist and author most recently of Can't Stop the Grrrls: Confronting Sexist Labels in Music from Ariana Grande to Yoko Ono; Weird Al: Seriously; and Insulting Music: A Lexicon of Insult in Music. Hirsch studied music history as an undergraduate at the University of the Pacific and earned her Ph.D. in musicology from Duke University. She is the author of books about music during the Nazi era, music in criminal law, musical humor, and the toxic labeling of women in music.
Hans Rudolf Vaget is Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature at Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts). He received his academic training at the universities of Munich and Tübingen, the University of Wales at Cardiff and at Columbia University in New York. His research focuses on Goethe, Wagner and Thomas Mann, on which he has published extensively. Recently he published Wehvolles Erbe: Richard Wagner in Deutschland. Hitler, Knappertsbusch, Mann (S. Fischer Publishing House, 2017). He is the author of the seminal book Thomas Mann, der Amerikaner: Leben und Werk im amerikanischen Exil, 1938-1952 (S.Fischer Publishing House, 2011).
Alex Ross has been the music critic of The New Yorker since 1996. His first book, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, won a National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His second book, Listen to This, is a collection of essays. His latest book is Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, an account of Wagner’s vast cultural impact. He has written often about Thomas Mann and the émigré community in L.A. for The New Yorker. He was awarded with a MacArthur Fellowship and the Belmont Prize.
Inna Faliks “Adventurous and passionate” (The New Yorker) Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most communicative, and poetic artists of her generation. She has made a name for herself through commanding performances of standard piano repertoire, as well genre-bending, interdisciplinary projects, and inquisitive work with contemporary composers. Her new memoir, Weight in the Fingertips, A Musical Odyssey from Soviet Ukraine to the World Stage, was published by Globe Pequot Press in October 2023. She holds the posts of Professor of Piano and Head of Piano at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
Organized by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience, the UCLA Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, and the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.