Otto von Pasetti-Friedenburg

Otto Freiherr von Pasetti-Friedenburg (born January 31, 1903 at Pakein Castle in Carinthia ; † unknown) was an Austrian tenor .

Pasetti doctorate in 1925 in Innsbruck Dr. rer. pol., but also appeared as an opera tenor in smaller roles. In 1932 he played Jimmy at the side of Lotte Lenya as Jenny in the Vienna premiere of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill . Lenya was still married to Weill at the time, but fell in love with Pasetti during the rehearsal period. The two became a couple for a long time, although Pasetti was also married. His family lived in Innsbruck and he and Lenya moved into a hotel in Vienna. In the same year they played the world premiere of The Seven Deadly Sins in Paris . On March 21, 1933 Lotte Lenya fled Nazi Germany to Vienna and found refuge with Otto Pasetti. Together they traveled to the French Riviera and tried unsuccessfully to gamble in the casinos. When Pasetti returned to Austria in 1934 due to lack of money, the couple were separated. In 1935/36 he was a singer at the Stadttheater Basel.

In 1937 Pasetti emigrated to the USA. In 1944 he returned to Europe as an intelligence officer in the American armed forces and changed his name to de Pasetti . In 1946 he was head of the theater and music department of the American intelligence control service in Austria. He was responsible, among other things that theater artists during the time of National Socialism had been involved in propaganda productions, concert permit or received -verbot. He also gave Paula Wessely permission to appear, who had only appeared in a few films in her career, including the 1941 anti-Polish Nazi film Homecoming by Gustav Ucicky .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} State Archives Basel-Stadt Signature: PD-REG 3a 21673 ( [1] )