Continuing the surge of interest in the Austrian-Jewish author Stefan Zweig since Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel," including the premiere of a new film in Europe this summer, "Vor der Morgenröte"/"Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe," and a host of new critical studies worldwide, a scholarly examination of the work of Zweig is slated for the beginning of October.
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| Zweig biographer George Prochnik |
Stefan Zweig |
"Zweig at Fredonia 2016," slated for Oct. 3 through 5, will feature Zweig-related events including a musical performance, a faculty panel, the opening of a manuscript exhibit, and a keynote address by award-winning Zweig biographer George Prochnik.
Highlighting Zweig’s lifelong fascination with music, particularly his collaborative relationship with Richard Strauss in his role as librettist for Strauss’s opera "Die schweigsame Frau", the first event on Oct. 3 at 3:30 p.m. in Fredonia’s Reed Library Garden Area will feature a panel led by musicologist Dr. Matthew Werley (Oxford) and will include Fredonia School of Music faculty Dr. Bernd Gottinger and Dr. Anne Kissel-Harper, among others.
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| Dr. Matthew Werley |
Dr. Werley is currently a Gerda Henkel Stiftung Research Fellow at the renowned Richard Strauss Institute in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany and is also co-editing (with Dr. Jeffrey B. Berlin) a forthcoming critical edition of newly translated correspondence between Strauss and Zweig. Much of the original manuscript correspondence written by Strauss to Zweig can be found in Fredonia’s prized Stefan Zweig Collection held in the Archives & Special Collections of Reed Library.
Selections from the Zweig collection will comprise part of the exhibit, "Zweig and Strauss: Artistic Collaboration in a Time of War," which opens Oct. 3 in the Reed Library Garden Area directly following the panel at 5 p.m. The exhibit is co-curated by Dr. Birger Vanwesenbeeck and Reed Library archivist Kim Taylor with the assistance of current English undergraduate and graduate students.
The following evening, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall, Fredonia School of Music faculty and students will perform selected songs and arias of Richard Strauss, including excerpts from "Die schweigsame Frau," composed during Strauss’s tenure as head of the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Chamber) under the Nazi regime. Strauss’s provocative choice of Zweig as librettist ultimately led to his forced resignation from the post by Nazi authorities.
The final event of the conference on Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall will feature renowned author George Prochnik, delivering the 4th Biennial Stefan Zweig Lecture. Prochnik is well known for his biographical treatment of Stefan Zweig, "The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World" (2014), from which filmmaker Wes Anderson loosely took inspiration for his film "The Grand Budapest Hotel." NPR’s Robert Siegel interviewed Prochnik in 2014 discussing both Anderson’s film and Prochnik’s then forthcoming book, which can be heard here [http://www.npr.org/2014/04/02/298340082/the-rise-and-fall-of-stefan-zwe…].
Prochnik’s other works include "In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise" (2010) and "Putnam Camp: Sigmund Freud, James Jackson Putnam and the Purpose of American Psychology" (2006).
"Zweig at Fredonia 2016" is sponsored with the generous support of Reed Library, the Carnahan Jackson Humanities Fund and the Mary Louise White Fund of the Fredonia College Foundation, and the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. For more information, contact Dr. Vanwesenbeeck at vanweseb@fredonia.edu or Reed Library archivist Kim Taylor at taylokr@fredonia.edu.
The website for the event is: https://fredonia.libguides.com/c.php?g=968870&p=7000977, the blog at https://zweigatfredonia.com/ and the Twitter handle is @FREDarchives.
