Eric(h) Zeisl - An Unfinished Life Documentary[USA]
September 17 2011
Premiere of a work-in-progress (movie about 75 min.)
September 17, 7PM, at the Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, CA
Q&A with filmmaker Herbert Krill, Barbara Zeisl-Schoenberg and Malcolm Cole
followed by a reception
Please call 310 454 4231
Half a century after his death in Los Angeles, at the early age of 53, Jewish-Austrian émigré composer Erich Zeisl (“Eric” in the U.S.) is being re-discovered. All over North America and Europe, his music is being performed again, it is available on CD, and there are books on his life and work in both English and German.
This first-ever documentary on Zeisl traces his origins as the son of a coffeehouse owner in Vienna; his flight to Paris when the Nazis arrived in Austria; and his final refuge in the United States. The story is being told by his most devoted relatives, fans, and friends: his daughter, his grandson, and two eminent Zeisl scholars. We find out about the composer's character, his ambitions, his successes and failures during his lifetime. We learn about his friendships with writers and composers like Hilde Spiel and Darius Milhaud, and his special relationship with Arnold Schoenberg, which in a special way continues to this day.
“Eric(h) Zeisl - An Unfinished Life” is full of Zeisl's best music: many of his “Lieder” that he wrote while in Vienna; his masterpiece Requiem Ebraico, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic; portions of his unfinished opera Hiob (Job); a historic recording of his Little Symphony; Zeisl himself playing on the piano, and much more.
Eric Zeisl