Nicolo-Peccavi, or The Dreyfus Affair at Carpentras

Armand Lunel

1926

It was, in fact, our aunt who had commissioned the bus. Madame Léa Josué Chanaan was our aunt and we called her Aunt Chanaan, just as we called her husband, Monsieur Josué Chanaan, our uncle, although none of us in the Jewish community of Carpentras was really their niece or nephew. They must have had real nieces and nephews somewhere—but who knows…

Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Armand Lunel

1892–1977

The novelist and librettist Armand Lunel was born in Aix-en-Provence into a family of Provençal Jews who had lived in southern France for centuries. His knowledge of Provençal Jewish legends informs his literary work, much of which is centered on Carpentras and its ancient Jewish quarter. He was the longtime librettist of his childhood friend Darius Milhaud. His first libretto—for Esther de Carpentras (1926), which was based on a Provençal Purim play—became the opéra bouffe Barbra Garibo (1950). He survived the German occupation of France in Monaco, where he had been teaching at the lycée since 1920.

You may also like

The Crazy Book

Arab Halva—moist, sticky, fibrous. The taste tears across my lips like a memory. Within me Jaffa stirs, wakens from sleep; eyes and faces of Jaffa. I am there, it is afternoon, a city half-awake…
View Source

A Jewish Mother from Berlin

Martha Jadassohn had come with her parents from a small West Poznanian town, named either Bobst or Meseritz, to Berlin where her father’s only sister, a widow, was living alone…
View Source