Irene Dische | |
|---|---|
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| Born | February 13, 1952 New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American, Austrian |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
Irene Dische (born February 13, 1952) is an American-Austrian author, journalist, screenwriter, and librettist whose work explores the German-Jewish experience, alienation, and exile. [1] [2] [3]
Daughter of Jewish refugees, Ukrainian-American scientist Zacharias Dische [4] and one time deputy Medical Examiner of NYC, Dr. Maria Renate Dische (née Rother), Dische was born and raised speaking German in the Washington Heights district of New York City. [1] She learned English in kindergarten, commuting two hours a day by subway and bus to attend the Brearley School in Manhattan, but eventually dropped out and never finished high school. She worked in East Africa for the paleontologist Louis Leakey, who, she said, "had a great respect for high-school dropouts." [5] She returned to the United States in 1972, and enrolled at Harvard University, majoring in anthropology, but switching to History and Literature after Louis Leakey died. [6] After graduation, Dische, who had dreamt of studying medicine but flunked her first semester of pre-med courses, studied with Robert Fitzgerald, who urged her to become a writer. Since she saw no reasonable alternative, she began working as a freelance writer, publishing in The New Yorker and The Nation . [1]
In her mid-twenties, Dische went to Germany as an interpreter for reporter Jane Kramer. She stayed, raising a family in Berlin, and writing long reportages for the German version of the New Yorker, "Transatlantik". Her journalism increasingly became fictional, as fact-checking was not yet in vogue. Soon she wrote only fiction. [7] In 1986, she directed a film Zacharias, based on her father, a brilliant scientist who was, at 92, suffering from Alzheimers and living completely alone in a shabby neighborhood of NYC. He greatly missed his mother, who was killed by the Nazis, but he couldn't remember that, and in the film, his mother speaks to him; they converse. The film won prizes in the Berlinale, and several festivals and many still consider it Dische's greatest achievement. [8] Dische published her first book, Pious Secrets,in 1989. This achieved considerable acclaim both in Germany and throughout Europe, where it was translated into fifteen languages. [7] Since then, she has published 13 books of fiction, and volumes of short stories. "The Job", a thriller, was made into a TV film, starring Vanessa Redgrave. It was published by Bloomsbury in the UK, but never in the US. [9] [10] Dische wrote two children's books, the first one, Esterhazy, was illustrated by Michael Sowa. The second one,a book for young adults, "Between Two Seasons of Happiness", won several major literary awards in Europe, and was published in 20 countries including the UK (Bloomsbury) but was also never published in the US. [11] In 1995, with Hans Magnus Enzensberger, she wrote the libretto for Aulis Sallinen's fifth opera The Palace . [12] Dische collaborated with Hans Magnus Enzensberger on several more librettos, including Mozart's "Zaide" for the Berliner Staatsoper, "Politburo" for Wolfgang Rihm, and a series of ten minute librettos for various composers. She also wrote a new libretto for a Schubert opera,"The German Professor", based on the true story of a high ranking Nazi scholar who assumed a new identity as a left wing liberal in 1968. This was translated by Elfriede Jelinek and performed in German, premiering at the Heidelberg Opera. Dische collaborated with Tobias Picker on the orchestral work Opera Without Words in 2016. [13] Her latest novel is a voice from the 18th century, belonging to the first celebrated transgender hero, a famous swordsman and intellectual, both as a man, and as a woman. He/she has some advice for those concerned with gender in the 21st century. As with all Dische's work, this will first be published in Germany, in autumn of 2021.
Dische divides her time between Berlin and Rhinebeck, New York. She is married to German lawyer Nicolas Becker and has two children: editor, writer, and translator Leon Dische-Becker, [14] and writer and filmmaker Emily Dische-Becker. [15]
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's Belmont und Constanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Constanze from the seraglio of Pasha Selim. The work premiered on 16 July 1782 at the Vienna Burgtheater, with the composer conducting.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarded as one of the literary founding figures of the Federal Republic of Germany and wrote more than 70 books, with works translated into 40 languages. He was one of the leading authors in Group 47, and influenced the 1968 West German student movement. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize and the Pour le Mérite, among many others.
Karita Marjatta Mattila is a Finnish operatic soprano.
Iphigenia in Aulis or Iphigenia at Aulis is the last of the extant works by the playwright Euripides. Written between 408, after Orestes, and 406 BC, the year of Euripides' death, the play was first produced the following year in a trilogy with The Bacchae and Alcmaeon in Corinth by his son or nephew, Euripides the Younger, and won first place at the City Dionysia in Athens.
Aulis Heikki Sallinen is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. His music has been variously described as "remorselessly harsh", a "beautifully crafted amalgam of several 20th-century styles", and "neo-romantic". Sallinen studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen. He has had works commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, and has also written seven operas, eight symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, flute, horn, and English horn, as well as several chamber works. He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1978 for his opera Ratsumies.
Jorma Juhani Panula is a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher of conducting. He has mentored many Finnish conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä and Klaus Mäkelä.
The origins of Finnish opera can be traced to the late 18th or 19th century, when the first opera performances were staged in Finland. It is generally assumed that the first opera performance in Finland took place in 1768 in Turku, when the troupe of Carl Gottlieb Seuerling presented the opera Adam und Eva by Johann Theile. However, other sources state that there was no orchestra at this performance.
Tamerlano is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostin Piovene's Tamerlano together with another libretto entitled Bajazet after Nicolas Pradon's Tamerlan, ou La Mort de Bajazet. The opera was staged by the Royal Academy of Music in the King's Theatre at the Haymarket, London.
Baron Bo Gustaf Bertelsson Carpelan was a Finland-Swedish poet and author. He published his first book of poems in 1946, and received his PhD in 1960. Carpelan, who wrote in Swedish, composed numerous books of verse, as well as several novels and short stories.
University College Opera, or UCOpera, is the student opera company of University College London. The operas are staged by professional singers, directors and designers, with the orchestra and chorus drawn from the student body. Founded in 1951, UCOpera is known for its productions of rarely performed operas, including 3 world premières, and 22 British premières. On 10 March 2008 UCOpera staged the UK premiere of Édouard Lalo's Fiesque, at the Bloomsbury Theatre. 2009 saw another British première, Ernest Bloch's Macbeth. UCOpera extended its list of British premières by staging Gounod's Polyeucte at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2018, and Smetana's Czech national opera, Libuše in 2019.
The Red Line is an opera in two acts with music by Aulis Sallinen to a libretto by the composer, which premiered on 30 November 1978 at the Finnish National Opera.
The Horseman is an opera in three acts by Aulis Sallinen, based on a libretto by Paavo Haavikko. It was premiered by the Savonlinna Opera Festival on 17 June 1975 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Olavinlinna Castle, and is the first of Sallinen's operas, and is replete with heavy symbolism and historical allegories. According to George Loomis, writing in The New York Times, the work "is widely credited for helping to precipitate a wave of Finnish operas".
Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan is an opera in three acts by Aulis Sallinen, based on the novel of the same title by Paavo Haavikko, who also wrote the libretto. The English singing version is by Stephen Oliver.
Palatsi is an opera in three acts, Op. 68, composed by Aulis Sallinen, on a libretto by Irene Dische and Hans Magnus Enzensberger. The translation of the libretto into Finnish was by the composer.
Kullervo is an opera in two acts, Op. 61, composed by Aulis Sallinen to his own libretto based on the story of Kullervo in the Finnish epic Kalevala. The opera premiered on 25 February 1992 at the Los Angeles Music Center.
The Symphony No. 5, Washington Mosaics, Op. 57, is an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen, who wrote the piece from 1984–85, revising the finale in 1987. The National Symphony Orchestra, the commissioning institution, premiered the work in 10 October 1985 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., under the direction of its music director, Mstislav Rostropovich.
Shadows, Op. 52, is an orchestral prelude by the Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen, who wrote the piece in 1982 on commission from the National Symphony Orchestra Association. The prelude's thematic material is closely related to Act III of Sallinen's third opera, The King Goes Forth to France, on which he also was at work in 1982, writing Shadows upon completion of Act II of the opera. Nevertheless, the composer has emphasized that Shadows is "an entirely independent orchestral work", albeit one whose "lyrical and dramatic ingredients reflect the philosophy of the opera". The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) premiered the work on 30 November 1982 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., under the direction of its music director, Mstislav Rostropovich. Shadows so impressed Rostropovich and his orchestra that the NSO requested Sallinen compose a symphony for them, the result of which would be the Fifth (1985).
Zacharias Dische was an American biochemist of Ukrainian-Jewish origin. He worked as a biochemical researcher in Vienna before being forced by the Anschluß to become a refugee, first in France and then in the US, where he joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1943. During his time in Marseilles he made a major discovery that is little known and usually attributed to others.
Teresa D. Lewis is an American translator, writer, and essayist. She is best known for her translation of French author Christine Angot's novel, Incest which was nominated for the Best Translated Book Award. She has also translated works by Peter Handke, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Jünger, and Philippe Jaccottet. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and received the Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, New College in 1986.
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