The opera Schoenberg in Hollywood revolves around a historic meeting between the legendary producer Irving G. Thalberg of Metro Goldwyn Mayer and the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. Thalberg asks 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 demand for a $50,000 fee ultimately led to the project falling through. 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, Erich Korngold, Hanns Eisler, 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).

 

Learn more about Todd Machover’s opera Schoenberg in Hollywood here.

 

Learn more about the 150th anniversary of Thomas Mann here.

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, 1933-1950 at the Skirball (2014–15). At the Academy Museum, she co-curated the inaugural exhibitions Stories of Cinemaand Backdrop: An Invisible Art (2021), the touring exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 (2022-23), and curated Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema (2024). She wrote the book Projected Art History: Biopics, Celebrity Culture, and the Popularizing of American Art (Bloomsbury, 2014) among numerous essays on art and film, gender and exile studies.  

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

Lily E. Hirsch is a musicologist, with a Ph.D. from Duke University, and Writer-in-Residence at California State University, Bakersfield. She is the author of the books A Jewish Orchestra in Nazi Germany: Musical Politics and the Berlin Jewish Culture League (University of Michigan Press in 2010),  Anneliese Landau’s Life in Music: Nazi Germany to Émigré California (Eastman Studies in Music in 2019), Can’t Stop the Grrrls: Confronting Sexist Labels in Music from Ariana Grande to Yoko Ono (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), and Taking Funny Music Seriously (Indiana University Press, 2024), among others.

 

 

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. 

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 and one of the general editors of GKFA (Mann's works, letters, and diaries), published by S. Fischer Verlage.