Celebrate Else Steinhardt.
People should not be defined by their victim-hood.
Fraulein Else is the name of the novella Arthur Schnitzler wrote in 1924. It was a forerunner of Joyce's stream of consciousness writing and it incorporated some of the psychosexual ideas from Freud's theories. It's about a young girl of 19 who lives in Vienna and is cornered into stripping for an old voyeur by her own mother. The father is having financial problems and the man will help the father if the girl obliges.
There are some parallels with our Else. She was roughly the same age as the character in the novella when it was written, and she probably moved in the same circles as Schnitzler, as a young opera singer. Moreover, Else was, if not classically beautiful, highly flirtations and attractive. In the pictures of her she is often arch: she licks ice creams, sits on laps and embraces naked statues.
In other pictures she is dressed in loose, flowing clothing, matching the open, aware expression on her face. Richard Steinhardt, her brother, dedicates a picture of them both from in the '20s, with the words (in English):
"To the prettiest girl I know."
In other pictures she is dressed in loose, flowing clothing, matching the open, aware expression on her face. Richard Steinhardt, her brother, dedicates a picture of them both from in the '20s, with the words (in English):
"To the prettiest girl I know."
After going through the family letters and photographs. I realise how little the tragedy at the end of Else's life defined her. The rapist doesn't define the life of the person they raped. The victim of mass murder is not be defined by the mass murder, however horrifying. Else was not defined by Auschwitz.
I can imagine Else in the amazing interwar period in Red Vienna, thoughtful, often post-coital. I imagine her independent of a loving, domineering father, nostalgic for the Hapsburg empire; I imagine her liberated from history and racial identity - flourishing in the mystery of sex, finding life and thereby enhancing meaning.
Music, performance, friendship, laughter, sadness. Her best friend and cousin, Paula, her dolder brother Richard, her more intellectual brother, Arthur, and all their friends. Her mother Regina and her father - his pomposity burst, he dies in the Prague in March 1941.
She wanted to become an opera singer; she became one. She had support and help to do so and by the time the Nazis banned all Jewish actors and singers and directors from the stage, though she was not celebrated, she was well known and had built up quite an impressive repertoire.
Her last performance was in Vienna was in 1937 in an Operetta by Strauss. She kept her cuttings and her calling cards and stage photos - I have them. Her repertoire, which she took to Paris in 1938 to give to theatres there, in order to find work is here.
And I'll type it up as it is on paper, to celebrate Else. I'll copy from the paper, yellower now, with it's faded letter "d's".
Repertoire: Else Steinhardt
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Opernsoubrette, Lyrische Sangerin u. Operettensangerin.
Boheme: Mimi, Musette
Butterfly: Butterfly
Caveliere rustieana: Lola
Carmen: Mieaela, Frasquitta
Don Juan: Zerline
Figaros Hochzeit: Cherubin,Suzanne
Freischutz: Annehen
Hansel und Gretel: Gretel
Lustige Weiber: Frau Fluth
Oberon: Oberon
Tiefland: Nuri
Unhold Ohneseele: Prinzessen (Rimsky Korsakow)
Verkaufte Braut: Marie
Waffenschmidt: Marie
Werther: Sophie
Zauberflaute: Pamina: 1. Knabe
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Land des Laeheins: Lisa
Graf V. Laeheins: Angele
Eva: Eva
Friearike: Friearike
Paganini: A...." Elisa
Fleaedermaus: Rosalinae: Aaele
Fruhlingsluft: Emilie
Geschiedene Frau: Jana
Im weissen Rossl: Josepha Vogelhuber
Berzen im Sehnee: Margaret
Fortunios Liea: Marie
Die sehone Galathe: Galathe
Abentenei in Tunis: Marion
Die Goldene Mule: Ketlerein
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