By Zoë Madonna

Fleeing the rise of the Third Reich, composer Arnold Schoenberg landed in the United States as that most American of arrivals: a refugee. Settling with his family in southern California and teaching college courses, he met with MGM producer Irving Thalberg, who tried to entice him into the brave new world of film music with an offer to score an upcoming adaptation of Pearl Buck’s “The Good Earth.” This true biographical information is laid out in the first few minutes of Tod Machover’s new opera “Schoenberg in Hollywood,” which received its world premiere from Boston Lyric Opera Wednesday night at the Paramount Center.

You probably won’t find anything resembling the rest of the opera in any Schoenberg biography anywhere.