Walter Meyer wrote regarding Benjamin Fleischmann:

>Fell? As in "fell in battle"? Or, as his Jewish name might suggest, was he
>a holocaust victim? I've never heard of this composer and can't find his
>name in my musical dictionaries.

Yes, "fell" as in "fell in battle"", in fact during the defense of
Leningrad (where Shostakovitsj temporarily served as a fireman).  However,
the exact date Fleischmann fell is not precisely known.  There are even
doubts to his exact birthyear.  Would this latter complication be perhaps
the reason why the writers of your musical dictionaries safely went by him?

You are, however, possibly missing out on some great music.

Fleishmann worked on his opera until his death and Shostakovitsj completed
it by 1948.  (Mats, thanks by the way for your correction earlier on).
However, in 1948, as Stalin/Zhdanov were setting up another vendetta,
against "formalists" like Shostakovitsj, he held back the completed work.
If I remember well, it wasn't premiered until 1968 by Maxim Shostakovitsj,
the composers son.  The work itself is in a refreshing moderately modern
style.  If you'd like a comparison, think of "The Gambler"by Prokofiev or
"The Nose" by Shostakovitsj, which two operas by the way are much
underrated in our 20 th century opera poll.  It also has a lot of the
crispness of e.g.  Stravinsky's Rake's Progress.

There is an excellent recording available on RCA 09026 68434 2 under the
great Gennadi Rozhdestvensky.

There exists also a (fictional) film on the subject of Fleischmann.  You
may want to check out:

   http://www.helsom.demon.co.uk/opera/Rothschild.txt

"Jos Janssen" <[log in to unmask]>