Leo Feld (14 February 1869,

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

- 5 September 1924

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

) was an Austrian librettist,

dramaturge A dramaturge or dramaturg is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes (or helps others with these tasks), consults auth ...

, stage director, and writer. He also worked as a translator for publishing companies, and was notably responsible for translating many of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' English language works for their first German language publications. Born with the name Leo Hirschfeld in Augsburg, he was the younger brother of librettist

Victor Léon The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

and educator Eugenie Hirschfeld. He moved with his family to Vienna in 1875 and was educated at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

; earning a doctorate in philosophy in 1892. He began contributing articles to various Vienna based magazines while a college student. Two of his mentors in writing were Jakob Julius David and

Hermann Bahr Hermann Anastas Bahr (; 19 July 1863 – 15 January 1934) was an Austrian writer, playwright, director, and critic. Biography Born and raised in Linz, Bahr studied in Vienna, Graz, Czernowitz and Berlin, devoting special attention to philosophy, ...

. His first play was awarded the Bauernfeld-Preis in the late 1890s. In 1900 he lived for some months in Berlin where he was actively involved the Überbrettl literary society. He then worked as a dramaturge and stage director in Brunswick. One of his closest friends was the actor

Josef Kainz Josef Gottfried Ignaz Kainz (2 January 1858 – 20 September 1910) was an Austrian actor of Hungarian birth. He was highly active in theatres in Austria and Germany from 1873–1910. Revered as one of the greatest actors of the German-speakin ...

. He wrote opera libretti for composers Eugen d'Albert, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Alexander von Zemlinsky. He died in Florence.

Works (selection)

The Rags (1898) Miss Teacher (folk play) (1905) The Stone of Pisa (1906) The Big Name (folk play) (1909) The Dombacher (1917) The Ornate Lattice (1923) Walk in the Fog (1925)

Sources

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Leo Feld
, '' Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950'' 1869 births 1924 deaths 19th-century Austrian male writers 20th-century Austrian male writers Jewish Austrian writers Austrian opera librettists Austrian opera directors Dramaturges German people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Writers from Augsburg Austrian theatre directors University of Vienna alumni Male dramatists and playwrights {{Austria-writer-stub