KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER Volume 4, Number 2 Fall 1986
Love Lile Revived in Michigan All-Star Threepenny in Paris At the University of Michigan, the Musical The noted director, Giorgio Strehler, has Theatre Program will mount a fully-staged assembled an international cast for a new production of Love Life from 16 - 19 April French production of The Three/Jenny Opera, 1987 at the Power Center for the Performing which premieres at the Theatre musical de Arts on the Ann Arbor campus. The Michigan Paris, Chatelet, on 31 October and runs in staging will mark the first revival of the repertory through 8 February. Barbara Suko original 1948 Broadway show, for which Kurt wa (Polly), Milva (Jenny), Michael Heltau Weill collaborated with Alan Jay Lerner. Brent (MacHeath), and Heinz Bennent (Peachum). Wagner, Chairman. Musical Theatre Pro star in the much talked about season opener. gram, will direct an all-student cast. The production is a collaboration with the Theatre de !'Europe. Set designs are by Ezio Frigero and costumes by Franca Squar ciapino. Knickerbocker in Florida The College of Fine Arts, Jacksonville Uni versity, presented Knickerbocker Holiday from 2-5 October at the Florida Theatre Per Canadian Conference Features forming Arts Center in Jacksonville. The Uni Berliner Ensemble versity was awarded a grant from the Kurt The Berliner Ensemble will make its North Teresa Stratas in Rags. Photo: Robert Weill Foundation, and from the Florida State American debut in Toronto on 21 October in Schwartz. Division of Cultural Affairs, in support of a the German-language production of The production which benefited from newly cor Threepenny Opera. Performances will run rected orchestra parts. William J. McNeiland through the 26th. The Ensemble's appear Stratas Sings Weill was the conductor, Gaylen Phillips the direc ance is part of an International Conference With Original Orchestrations tor, and Betty Swenson the choreographer. and Theatre Festival entitled "Brecht, 30 Michael Mauldin, a New York-based actor Years After,~ sponsored by the University of "For me, Stratas is the greatest singer known for his Shakespearean roles played the 'foronto. The Canadian Opera Company will of Weill songs." -Lotte Lenya. role of Peter Stuyvesant. Lys Symonette, offer the Mahagonny Songspiel and a cabaret Musical Executive of the Kurt Weill Founda evening of Brecht/Weill Songs. Other per On the heels of Teresa Stratas's wildly ac tion, visited the campus during the rehearsal formances include The Caucasian Chalk Cir claimed performance on Broadway in Rags, period to consult and coach. cle by the Berliner Ensemble and John Nonesuch is releasing the long-a waited Willett's translation of Dnm1s in the Night by "known" Kurt Weill album: Stratas Sings the w1iversity's drama department. Weill. The album features some ofWeill 's best known songs including "Havanna-Lied," The conference. slated for 21-26 October, "Surabaya-Johnny:· "Foolish Heart,'' "One IN THIS ISSUE: will present roundtable discussions as well as Life to Live;'' ']'attends un navire;' ''Lonely forn1al sessions on a range of topics including House," "Denn wie man sich bettet," · 'Le Feature Articles: Brecht's influence on stage production in train du ciel," " It Never Was You," and · 'Der How Was Weill's Success Achieved? Ireland, Scandinavia, South America, the kleine Leutnant des lieben Gottes;' sung in by David Drew. Middle East, and China, Brecht's influence on their original languages. This is the first song The Alchemy of Music by Kurt Weill. contemporary European. British. American, album released to use Weill's original orches and Canadian playwrights, Brecht as stage trations throughout. The Y Chamber Orches Reviews: director, and Brechtian sets and costumes. 1n tra is conducted by Gerard Schwarz. A New Orpheus by Richard Taruskin. addition, master classes will be conducted by Miss Stratas was personally invol\1ed in all Stratas Sings Weill by Leighton Kerner. renowned directors, and films of Berliner aspects of the production. and the liner notes Johnny Johnson by Alan Rich. Ensemble productions will be shown. Luca feature an extensive and highly personal inter Lombardi will chair a session on "Brecht and view. Also: Music. •· Other conference participants in Nonesuch plans to arrange separate re Recent Archival Acquisitions clude Eric Bentley, Franz Xaver Kroetz, leases of the album in Germany and France. In New Publications George Ryga. John McGrath, JoAnne the United States, Strata.s Sings Weill will be Performance Listing Akalaitis, Manfred Karge, Roger Planchon, released simultaneously on LP and Compact Manfred Wekwerth. Disc (Nonesuch 79131). NEWS IN BRIEF
Faber Announces Drew's Grant Applications Due American Scores and Parts Kurt Weill Handbook November 1st Scrutinized The long awaited catalogue, Kurt Weill: A APPiications for 1987 grant awards are due In conjunction with the Rodgers & Ham Handbook by David Drew. the eminent Brit by 1 November 1986. The Kurt Weill Founda merstein Music Library, the Kurt Weill Foun ish Weill scholar, will appear in April 1987. It tion for Music grants financial assistance in dation has undertaken a major effort to will be published in England by Faber & Faber the areas of Research, Publication, Disserta proofread and correct the scores and parts for and in the United States by the University of tion Fellowships, Travel, and Performance/ the Broadway works which are rented for var California Press. A German language edition Production. Awards for the 1987 cycle will be ious stock and amateur productions in the will follow. made by 1 February 1987. Specific guidelines United States. The Foundation hopes the Commissioned by the Akademie der may be found in previous issues of the News project will enable producing organizations to Kiinste. West Berlin, the handbook is the letter or may be obtained by calling the Foun make more efficient use of valuable rehearsal result of years of research. Although primari dation at (212) 873-1465. time and foster greater appreciation of Weill's ly intended as a reference work, the lengthy orchestrations through the availability ofaccu essays, critical notes, as well as the rate full scores and performance materials. chronological arrangement of works provide a Threepenny Opera Handbook in Gary Fagin (conductor, and editor of the general review of Weill's life and achieve Preparation new Happy End edition forthcoming from ment. The major portion of the book is Stephen Hinton (Hindemith scholar, and EAM) has meticulously proofread and edited devoted to a catalogue of works which in writer on Weill) is preparing a book on The the full score and parts for Street Scene using cludes short synopses of all stage works, cast Threepenny Oj>era to be published in the Cam Weill's manuscript as a primary source. As a lists, and orchestrations, in addition to de bridge Opera Handbook series. Divided into result, the fully corrected set of masters will scriptions of the extant manuscripts. The two parts, background and interpretation, the insure subsequent accurate printings. Handbook features an extensive chronology publication will focus upon The Threepenny David Abell (conductor) tackled the score of Weill's life, and contains an essay describ Operas place in the history of operatic re and parts for Los/ in /he.Stars, and again using ing unfulfilled projects. Throughout the book, forms during the W!imar Republic. Weill's manuscript score, provided a detailed Drew confronts such controversial topics as In addition to contributions from David report documenting an abundance of mis the composer's relations with Brecht and Drew. Kim Kowalke, and Geoff Abbott, Hin takes. The report makes recommendations radical politics. The preface, which serves as ton will provide translations of essential docu for the production of a new full score to reflect a repott to the Akademie, is a vivid and ments and present new material from Weill's original orchestration, replacing the personal account of Drew's thirty-year in research conducted at the institutional ar current one which includes an expanded or volvement with Kurt Weill's music, chron chives of Weill, Brecht, Neher, and Universal chestration added after Weill's death. In addi icling the Weill ·renaissance' and evaluating Edition. The editor's essay will present a gen tion, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Music the various analytical treatments which eral overview, discuss interpretative difficul Library has recently produced a new libretto Weill's oeuvre has received over the years. ties, and offer suggestions regarding and principal-chorus vocal book available for performance practice. rental. Table of Contents The next American musical to undergo edit ing and correction will be Johnny Johnson. Foreword by The Academy of Arts, West Happy End in New Performing Berlin Edition Cntroduction: Report to the Academy of Arts, European American Music is preparing a West Berlin new rental edition of Happy End with the orig Acknowledgements KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER inal German text and an English translation by Vol. 4, No. 2 Fall 1986 Weill's Life and Times: A Chronology Michael Feingold. The full score, vocal score, Catalogue of Weill's W>rks and orchestral parts are edited by Gary Fagin David Farne th, Editor Introduction in consultation \vith Kim Kowalke. Critical Mario Mercado, Associate Editor Purposes and organization of the Catalo notes will be included. The vocal score will be James Lynch, Production Assistant gue available for sale by EAM in the near future. Abbreviations and Editorial Principles © Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. 1986 A Note on Weill's Composing Methods 142 West End Avenue, Suite 1-R The Catalogue New York. NY 10023 Foundation and EAM To Produce U.S.A. Chronological List of W>rks (212) 873-1465 Classified List of Works Publication Catalog In response to numerous questions about Juvenilia and Early Works Board o( Trustees Opus Numbers and After the availability of scores and recordings, Ma Kim Kowalke, President Miscellaneous Unidentified Sketches rio Mercado, the Associate Director of Pro Henry Marx, Vice-President Doubtful and Chimerical Works grams of the Kurt Weill Foundation, is Lys Symonette. Vice-President Projects: An Outline preparing a catalog which will serve as a quick Guy Stern, Secretary Brook House Library and practical guide to Weill's works. Address Milton Coleman. Treasurer The Lacunae: A Resume ing the requirements of performers. pro Harold Prince Appendix l Kurt Weill Foundation for Music ducers, and librarians, the catalog will be Julius Rudel organized by genre and each entry will specify Appendix ll Weill-Lenya Research Center Foundation Staff Appendix 1Il WeilVLenya Archive at Yale required performing forces, duration, availa Kim Kowalke, President University ble editions and recordings, authorized trans Lys Symonette. Musical Executive Appendix. IV Weill's Publishers lations, and publisher information. European David Farneth, Archivist/Director of Programs lndex of Weill's Works American Music Corp. will publish and distrib Mario Mercado, Associate Director of Programs General Index ute the catalog. James Lynch, Secretary
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE2 LETTERS
To the Editor: As far as l can tell, Kurt Weill didn't have a \.\leill was a composer of sacred music, no As far as ' 'vexatious considerations'· as to very easy time. While he has gained some re matter the format, his collaborators. or the whether Weill warrants some of the treat spect in the years since his death, for the most ''seriousness'' of the music. He is most ments he got on Lost in the Stars, I'll admit my part his music gets trashed on a regular basis. known outside the music school circuit for his ways; I changed a passing tone to resolve a While T don't know the intimate details of '·pop' · songs. Consider then, if you will, that chord so Aaron Neville could improvise on fa. Weill's life, his music has been part of my Todd Rundgren will likely be seen as an impor miliar tonal ground. Not only that, but. .. (you world for 20 years. Here's a .guy that so many tant a fi.gure in music history as Weill, even can blame this on Jay Weigel. too) saxophones of us have soaked up, learned from, and been more important, perhaps. There are literaUy and clarinets were used in place of singers inspired by and ... so what? Weill is most often thousands of good composers. living and which had the effect o( reducing the apparent heard in elevators. dead, whose music warrants close inspection dissonance. \\e concentrated on asmall group What about your review of lost in the Stars? and repeated listening. Weill is just one of version of the "hurricane" music. which was Tacky! Considering the attitude you took I'm them. only released on the CD. l still think taking surprised you didn't have Joan Collins do the Lenya impersonators? Would that you be fa. this song (and yes, it is a song, despite its in review in character. Perhaps Hulk Hogan miliar with the work of these formidable tended use) out of the realm of any irony or could have done a bang up job of putting those women, you might have something to tell us sarcasm was an OK move. Johnny Adams and crude rockers in their place. Anyhow, William about their respective renditions instead of Aaron Neville are two of the finest singers Madison seems overly influenced by George lumping them together into a misogynist around. Great singers take the most insipid Will. I loved his use of Verfremdungseffekl, but bouillabaisse. Personally, I find Eva Gabor's material and chill the audience anyway. Our then, l've always been a fan of banal grad rendition of "Theme from Green Acres" to arrangement had tittle to do with "gospel" school witticisms, which is one of the main be the classic example of Lenya imperson other than some of the singers were black. reasons r read your newsletter. There is one ation. The notes. with the exception of the few I awful truth I must force upon you: the musi What were the rest of us doing during the mentioned, were all Weill. And yes. I played cians who played on Lost in the Stars know a ··lean dark years of the seventies'' when Lou the D minor arpeggio in an altered fashion and lot more about it than your reviewer. He Reed w11s single-handedly preserving rock? gave it to slide .guitar and tenor sax in unison. should review Anne Murray albums. Maybe Lou is a great self promoter. a fine enter It sounds like music to me. If you don't think there's an Anne Murray Foundation. tainer, and a •'personality'· who has shown us so, I invite you to tie me up and make me First of all, there was no thought given by many ways to be human. As a musician. Lou write jingles for the rest of my life. the producers to introducing Weill's work to a gets by. But his version of • 'September MARK BINGHAM rock audience. Most of the great musicians of Song" is grim and entirely pointless. espe New York City our time work in the so-called jazz and rock cially compared to the Jimmy Durante ver worlds. That is why there are so many so sion. If it is still possible for art to be called rockers playing on Lost in the Stars. You offensive, this is. Editor's Note: William Madison has declined should consider yourselves lucky that so comment. many caring individuals took the time, for If A&M Records had bothered to teU any one about Lost in the Stars, the record could very little remuneration, to do something with French Radio Series Weill's music. T'm hard pressed to come up have exposed Weill to a new audience. Alas, with more than a handful of Iistenable Weill the record seems to have been the victim of At the end of November. Radio France will records. Most are destroyed by rigid, mu all-too-typical record company politics. A&M broadcast nationally a 15-hour series on the seum-worthy performances. And the singing! would have loved to release a collection along works of Kurt Weill. Produced by Alan Jooly, Ouch! Stylized theater singing, when com the lines of Bobby Darin ·s ''Mack the Knife.'· the program will be broadcast for three hours pared to most every other sort of singing on It is rumored that A&M wanted to call the rec each evening for five days and will feature a this planet, is trivial at best. .. a kind of ex ord TURBO instead oflost in the Stars. comprehensive view of Weill 's oeuvre. panded cheerleading that has contributed to Zorn and the Beatles? How about Bird. the wholesale slaughter of Weill on record. Bali, blues, and the Beatles to go along with UE to Reprint Royal Palace lf you want a Weill for the rock audience rec the Euro B's we revere in academic circles? Continuing its efforts to restore Weill 's ord, why don't you produce it? How about Today's composer has had the opportunity to works to print, Universal Edition will soon Sean and Madonna doing ''Pirate Jenny'' or hear it all. The· 'squeak-fart'' school of com publish a reprint edition of the piano-vocal Huey Lewis and Eddie Van Halen whipping posing. as taught in prestigious Eastern uni score of Royal Palace. an opera in one acl out ··How to Survive?'' Michael Jackson and versities, is all but obsolete except for the composed in 1925-26 to a libretto by (wan Bishop Tutu ... oh. never mind. I sat through purposes of obtaining grants, tenure, and Pu Goll. The piano reduction is by Arthur Willner. the mix of Sling's version of · 'Mack the litzer prizes. Hardly anyone listens, but we all Knife·· and while it may not have satisfied know who wins the prizes. Had ~~ill re your reviewer, it sure beats the hell out of any mained alive to this day, I can't see him writ other version l 've heard lately. ing and teaching gibberish for a living. He Brechtian alienation: A gradual conviction on Lamenting the lack of irreverence on I.osl would have been a great film composer. He the part of a German playwright that every in the Stars, Mr. Madison dredges up the would have been a big Muddy Waters fan. He Kurt Weill tune sounds like every other Kurt name of one Malcolm Maclaren. My sugges would not understand New Age music but Weill tune, and consequent determination to tion is. if you've not heard of MacLaren would spend some of bis spare time watching find another co-composer. (Miles Kington, you're lucky. Meanwhile, the commentary Madonna videos. He would have known that The LondQt1 Times, 29 May 1986) found in SO-year-old Weill/Brecht remains Zorn 's piece on Lost in the Stars had very little fresh. You want P.D.Q. Weill? You must have a to do with the Beatles piece called ' ' Revolu Ben Bagley record. Listen and weep. tion #9.' ·
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE3 Editor's note: The first of our two excerpts from David catalogue entry of Die Dreigroschenoper; the second is an Drews forthcoming Kurt Weill: A Handbook due for publica example of his approach to the recently discovered early tion next spring by Faber & Faber in England, and the Uni works. ~ are grateful to Mr. Drew and to his publishers for versity of California Press, is one of the notes from his pennission to print these items in advance ofpublication.
How Was Weill's Success Achieved By David Drew An excerpt from Kurt Weill: A Handbook
The success of [Weill's] music for Maha who was born in the Rhineland in 1905 and of quasi-mystical faith as Bentley's 1961 gonny and the other Brecht works is not worked closely with Brecht between 1925 "Homage. " In his excitement at the discovery in question. But how was that success until 1927. Among these settings are ver of Brecht-Bruinier, Diimling seems to have achieved? Brecht sometimes intimated sions of two songs later used in Die Dreigro lost his grip on musical and other facts. For that he himself contributed some or all of schenoper. "Seerauberjenny" and the "Barba what is both "astonishing'' and "celebrated" is the tunes of The Threepenny Opera. For not Brecht's serviceable but in itself unre years I considered this a boast. Later l ra Song." The latter need not detain us here, came to believe it. as its bearing on Weill's setting is insignific markable idea; it is Weill's composition of it. ant. "Seerauberjenny" is very much more Bruinier may have been the first musician to Eric Bentley, "Introduction: Homage to interesting. The material in the Brecht Arc board Brecht's "Schiff mit acht Segeln" but it B.B," in Seven Plays by Bertolt Brecht, hive (BBA 249/53-9) consists of a vocal part was ~ill who took it to sea and steered it to ed. Eric Bentley
© Copyright 1986byDavidDrew.
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE4 Whatever has yet to be revealed, the the artlessness of Brecht-Bruinier and the tions. Its first appearance in Weill - or at decisive inspiration in the song is Weill's and artiness of O/rah's Lieder far behind. But least the first we know of - is in his setting Weill's alone. The very fact that at a structur since the motif that united them is still the of Eichendorff's "Sehnsucht" which dates ally crucial point the melodic line is a borrow merest cliche, the validity of the contract from 1916. The motif reappears that same ing confirms the evidence of our ears: as so might well be in question had the banns been year at U,e very start of the second of O/rah's often in Weill, the structural priorities are announced only once. How, then. does Weill Lieder - "Nichts ist die Welt mir." harmonic and tonal, not linear. The refrain, as treat the "Barbara-Song." and the rather less Di.imling remarks, is "astonishing": but only permanent domestic arrangements it rec "The world is nothing to me. " The means because of the tonal events that have pre ords? About them, Brecht and Bruinier have whereby Weill repeatedly expresses that ceded it and the harmonic ones that then nothing of any musical account to say. Weill on sentiment in his Dreigroschenoper music. but explode its own cadential structure. the other hand discovers a refrain no less only and always in order to refute it, a.re Nevertheless Brecht-Bruinier compels one "celebrated" than that of "Seerauberjenny. characteristic of his own peculiar dialectic. In to ask what mysterious force drew Weill to Melodically its head-motif is also a cliche; and them will be found the true secrets of his the refrain and prompted so powerful a it too has very strong East European associa- success. reaction to its East European melos. For a while it seemed as if another cryptic clause had been added to the song's anarchic revolutionary program - without loss to its messianic associations, but also without enriching them. But quite soon after the r.-. discovery of the Brecht-Bruinier song a I'.°' complementary discovery on the Weill side • s,. solved the riddle - at no expense to the UnJ con S
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGES Cycle for voice and piano on modem German translations of Hebrew poems by Jehuda Halevi. {c. 1080-c. U45). Written in blue ink on twelve sides (non-autograph pagination) ofW.O.H.i.H. No 402a L.C.G. [paper], the manuscript was in the possession of the soprano Elisabeth F euge and her heirs until its purchase in 1985 by the Music Division of the Library of Congress in Wishington. DC. Except in 2. the underlaid texts are in modem NOTE 1 arabic script. On the title page is an oblong octagonal label, \\oith the autograph date "September 1916" (in the left-hand corner) and A physician by training, Judah ben Samuel ha-Levi was the foremost Hebrew poet of medieval times, and also an important autograph titling as follows: "Ofrah's Lieder/Ein Liederzyklus nacb Gedichten von/Jehuda Halevi/von/Kurt Julian Weill." neo-platonic Arabic philosopher. He spent his early years in his native Spain, and then emigrated to Palestine, where he died. The NOTE 2 poems chosen by Weill are moralities and fables drawing for their "Nichts ist die Welt mir" is so much more accomplished than any imagery on nature and the animal kingdom. "How astonishing of the four songs in the two preceding drafts that it suggesLS a forsooth, and wonderful,·· begins "Wie staunenswert," "the gentle lapse of weeks or even months before WeiJJ put the cycle into its dove catches the eagle.• final forn1; yet there has been no technically significant revision of the two songs Weill has preserved. The weakest of the new songs is "Er sah mir liebend in die Augen." Clearly intended to replace DRAFTS A and B "Wie staunenswert," it likewise attempts to establish a quasi (Partly missing?) operatic contrast to the cycle's predominantly lyrical manner. But although it is compositionally more sharply focused than "Wie A B staunenswert," it is quite as naive in its histrionic attitudes, and 1. " In meinem Garten l. ditto sounds all the more so after the relatively sophisticated "Nichts ist steh' n zwei Rosen" die Welt mir." If, at a second look. one is disconcertingly reminded 2. "kh bin dir mehr als Son 2. "Nur dir. fiirwahr'" of the attitudes Weill was to poke fun at fourteen years later, in neng]anz" Lucy's "Eifersuchtsarie" - the only Dreigrosc/Jenoper number that 3. "Nur dir; fiirwahr. mein 3. "Wie staunenswert" lives up to that work's reputation as a parody-thal is a tribute to stolzer Aar" the revelation afforded by the next song in the cycle. In the ambivalence of the very first harmony. as in the semitonal Autograph (Rita Weill Collection) processes by which it is dissolved prior to the exorbitant F-sharp [N.8. The following description and the cor major resolution, one hears the feme K Jang of the \'kill to come; responding one in the section below is based and then, as if to prove that this uncanny prefiguration is real upon examination of photocopies only.] rather than fanciful, the piano, in bar 6. suddenly glimpses Seeriiuberjenny's eight-sailed ship as it emerges from the Draft A is on seven sides of a 12-line paper (oblong format chromatic mists with Wdgner's Flying Dutchman still aboard. The without maker's name). Each song begins on a new page and has a telescopic effect is so pronounced that one has to remind oneself beading in the same style: O/rali':; Lieder I. etc. If the eighth side that the musical substance is hardly such as to overwhelm of the original manuscript, rather than the first. is the one that is listeners unfamiliar with what lay ahead. Only a teacher as blank, this would confirm the impression left by the character of 3 sympathetic and discerning as Albert Bing might have recognized and its tonal relationship to the preceding songs - namely that the promise latent in that first page of 4, and forgiven the romantic Weill was originally planning a three-part cycle. In version B ''Nur effusions that follow. dir, fiirwahr" is shifted to second place. with the result that its E Between the first two versions of O/rah's Lieder and the flat major tonality is made to sound as if it were a subdominant definitive one runs the line that divides adolescent works that consequence of the first song's B-flat major. In this context the C were of interest chiefly within the family circle from those that major of "Wie staunenswert" could not have been intended as began to reach out for a \vider audience. Judged on its own conclusive; nor indeed could its vapid \¥.ignerisms. If V>eill was intrinsic merits, without the distortions of sentiment or hindsight. now planning a set of five, the fourth song could have been "Jch the definitive version is simply a step in the right direction: at the bin dir mehr als Sonnenglanz," from Draft A. Not only would the age of 16½ Weill still had much to learn about harmony and Schubertian F minor of its opening have made an effective composition. but was learning fast. The fact that he was prepared contrast, but the tentative cadence in A-flat major, beneath which to offer O/ralt's Lieder for public perfom1ance a whole year later Weill has written "oder auch gleich nacb Es" (or alternatively may raise questions about his powers of self-criticism: yet he had straight to E-flat), would have allowed for several different tonal good reason to regard O/rah's Lieder as his true starting poinL conclusions to the cycle. The first page of a slightly revised Small wonder that he unconsciously returned to its polyglot version of the E-flat major "Nur dir. fiirwahr" is headed by the Jewish-Romantic modes in Der Weg der Verl1eissu11g and The roman numeral V. and might seem to indicate a further stage in the Eternal Road. For all their gleanings from Schubert and evolution of Draft 8 towards the definitive version of the cycle: Schumann, from Loewe and Mendelssohn and Wigner, O/rah's but since it is identical with the final version of that song, it is Lieder contain the first glimpses of the mature \\eill, and the onl;· more likely to be a second copy for singer or accompanist. ones before he had discovered Mahler and modern music.
Catalogue entry from David Drew's Kurt Weill Handbook. © Copyright 1986 by Drew.
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE6 The Alchemy of Music Music may be the ingredient that will transform the play into living theater
By Kurt Weill
When we consider the theater not in its theater and the Italian commedia dell 'arte con isolated from drama and on the other hand of character today but in the light of its origins tinued to use music, and opera found in the musical comedy, which is to say a handful of and historical development, we find the term masterpieces of Mozart a new blend of speech topical events surrounding a group of hit "musical theater" a tautological one. The and music where the drama justifies its right songs. Without contesting the right to exist great theater culture of the past, from which to existence in spite of the clear predomi ence of both of these veins, since both have all that we have today derives, the Japanese nance of the music. It was the nineteenth cen their audiences, it can be said that a reestab theater, the Greek, the medieval mystery, are tury which brought the definite break. Opera. lishment of the true musical theater is sched unthinkable without music; they regard music love-child of the European court. became uled to take place inside of the enormous as an indispensable element of dramatic art; more and more the property of the music territory between the two genres; it has been they do not use music merely to intensify the lover. It developed its own style, cultivated its ripe for a long time. It is obvious that the play dynamic growth of the action and the rhythm own public, and therewith established an inde wrights of our time are seeking a way out of of the performance, but as a substance which, pendent life. In this form music is the leading the realistic theater, since this art form has when blended with language, becomes one of element; ideas of form are far more important found its realization in the films on a scale the most powerful formal values of theater. In than dramatic ideas; the spoken content is which the limited stage cannot touch. The the Greek theater the chorus represents the pushed farther and farther into the back dramatists have realized that, alongside the heart and frame of the action, and in the Japa ground (so that today, in this country, operas films, the stage has a reason for existence to nese No-play the chorus draws its song from are performed in foreign languages which al day only if it aspires to a rarer level of truth. the very lips of the actor in the middle of his most no one understands). only if it restores poetry. sentence. ln the great theater cultures of the On the other hand the theater as drama has Claude!. Gide, and Cocteau in France, past, music was an inevitable and intrinsic fea developed a realistic form which is contented Auden and Eliot in England, Georg Kaiser, ture of the drama. with such a direct photographic representa Bert Brecht. and Franz Werfel in German Ja the course of the centuries, concepts tion of life that there is no further relation drama, each in his own way, have [sic] striven have so succeeded each other that today, af whatever with music. In this development we to express the ideas and events of our time in ter an era of musicless theater. talk about mu find musical theater only in the light vein, and poetic drama. This movement is gaining more sical theater is being heard again; drama and relegated to such a separate territory that we and more strength in the United States, which music. inseparable in their origin, are trying to regard as a matter of course the sharp division has the most exciting theater in the world af. come together again. The break between between "serious" and' 'light" theater. The ter Russia. An entire generation of American drama and music occurred in the Renaissance, more that serious music wanders into esoteric playwrights is beginning to concern itself with when Italian theater people and musical com regions where very few can follow, the more the non-realistic theater. Maxwell Anderson posers, in the effort to revive ancient drama, is light music despised. It is completely for finds in verse-drama the possibility of mod deliberately invented the form of opera. The gotten that, in the time of Mozart, such a dis ernizing the Shakespearean form; Paul Green natural sense of fusion had gone; unfortunate tinction scarcely existed and that the light creates a kind of lyrical-epicaJ folk play; Clif self-consciousness set in. In the beginning op muse has produced such geniuses as Offen ford Odets builds his social studies on a poetic era was musical theater in the best and purest bach, Sullivan, and Johann Strauss. I consider structure; and a great number of the younger sense of the phrase; it sought a new blending it one of the most important realizations of re writers strain to break loose from the theater of song and speech on the basis of great the cent years that the distinction between good form of the last few decades. Playwright and ater tradition. In fact, the music of Montever and bad music has replaced the distinction of poet are becoming one person aga:n. di's Or/w, which was really the first opera, light and serious, and that good light music is That way lies the musical theater, for musi bears a strong resemblance to ancient drama. appreciated as being more valuable than bad cal theater is the purest and most direct form But gradually the theater as drama and the serious music. of poetic theater. The presence of music lifts newly discovered genre of musical theater be The musical theater as it exists today con the play immediately to a high level of feeling gan to take separate paths. The Elizabethan sists on the one hand of the opera completely and makes the spectator far more disposed to
Edit-0r's Note: This extraordinary essay represents an important synthesis of Weill's thoughts regarding music and theater, and it borrows some of the ideas he presented in his kcture to the Group Theatre in the summer of 1936. (Noles for this lecture are in the Weill Lenya Research Cen.ter.) II first appeared in the November 1936 issue of Stage magazine on pages 63-64. (Stage ceased publication in 1939 when it was absorbed by Theatre Arts.) Its publication was no doubt prompted by the opening ofJohnny Johnson (19 November 1936). however. only the last two paragraphs suggest a pmmotional tone. The fluency of the prose suggests that Weill worked with an editm; however. none is credited. We would like to thank Victoria Stevenson for disc(Wering this article in Burgess Meredilh's archive and for thoughtfully forwarding a copy to the Wei/1 -l enya Research Center. It was unknown to us before this time and, to the best of our knowledge, has not been n,Printed previously.
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE7 pursue the poetic line. In a poetic drama with that the transition can be entirely simple and out music the author is obliged to use an ex unforced when the actor switches from alted verse-speech and to get farther and speech to song. Of course it is never singing in farther away from truth and languages. But ... the composer. .. assists in the the sense of pure singing art, like opera. The this has succeeded in very few cases recently, construction of every scene of actor sings with his natural voice, the voice he because of the difficulty in finding the right the action, to the point where his would use to give speech its highest intensity. mode of rendition. The actor, in seeking to This makes it imperative for the composer to make the language comprehensible to an audi music becomes an integral part produce a clear, simple, melodic line so that ence which has grown used to it, must ap of the whole. the performer will not be faced with any un proximate as closely as he can the prosaic natural burdens. But in general T have found forms of speech. (and my collaboration with the Group Theatre ln the musical theater the author is much has sharply confirmed it) that i!Clors work better able to remain within the bounds of re stimulant. A play must be conceived from the with great excitement and devotion on musi ality because the music assumes the task of very beginning as a musical play, if the de cal problems. that they are astonishingly mu widening and deepening the range ofeffects of mands of musical theater are to be at all ful sical, and that one can impose greater musical illuminating the action from within, of making filled; the form of the play must be created difficulties upon them than anyone imagines. the implications and the universality of the from the musical point of view; the action of Once song has been acknowledged as an events clear to the spectator. Thus the musi the musical play must be more pliable than exalted medium of expression and as an intrin cal theater creates a basic extension of the that of sheer drama, so that lyrics can be sic feature of dramaturgy, we begin to glimpse material ofdrama. Music can aid, for example, planted; the suspense is created not so much infinite possibilities for its use in solos, in small in restoring the romantic element, which the through the progress of the action as through groups and in a chorus. One can cover (as I did modern theater has had to do without for so the dynamics of the epic tale; and psychology, with Max Reinhardt for The Eternal Road) all long. One glance at New York at night, at an which has been such an intrinsic feature of the middle tones of the scale from pure industrial photograph, at a flash of any news drama during recent decades, is replaced by speech to song-speech, recitative, half-sing reel, at a page of any newspaper, reveals to us simple , human, universal events. ing, and even.pure singing. And with the aid of the richness of romantic quality that life today The aim and meaning of the musical theater music one can enter the realm of fantasy and contains, and presents dazzling possibilities of is the binding of speech and music, the most give speech to' 'superhuman'' qualities which new form, once it is concluded that the roman thoroughgoing fusion of the two. Only when can only be referred to in the realistic theater. tic element deserves to be revived. Here is speech and music truly combine in song can This occurs twice in Johnny Johnson: when where music's power could be so great. one speak of the musical theater. Song is not a song is understood as coming from a statue One of the most difficult form problems of simple interruption of action, which could pro and then from a machine. contemporary playwrights is the balancing of ceed very well without it. It is an indispensa But all this is possible on the basis of inti the opposed values of humor and tragedy ble aid to comprehension of the play and its mate coUaboration between author and com without having one destroy the other. I have nature; it projects the actions of the play to a poser from the day the play is conceived to the seen numerous plays where 1 was unable to different and higher level; over a stretch of night it achieves its first performance, so that rise sympatheticaJJy to the dramatic climaxes scenes it provides a commentary on the action the composer cannot content himself with the of the story because the previous humorous from a human, universal point of view; it lifts creation of music, but assists in the construc scenes had not prepared me for them at all. In the characters out of the frame of the play and tion of every scene of the action. to the point a musical play the author can mingle these ele makes them express, directly or indirectly, where his music becomes an integral part of ments with far greater freedom; his comic the philosophy of the author. The power of the whole. scenes cah be more comic, his tragic more music makes it possible to extend the move I have always striven to collaborate with the tragic, since music creates the balance. ment of a word and its operation so that the best dramatists 1 could find . The three operas The final scene in Mozart's Don Juan is the values of speech find their complement in the 1 wrote with Georg Kaiser, the five stage classic instance of how a single scene can values of music. plays with Bert Brecht, the experiments with change from the most abandoned gaiety into The common task of poet and composer is Caspar Neher, Jacques Deval. and Franz Wer the most appalling horror with only one chord. to see to it that the song is not inserted in the fel-all these were efforts to win playwrights All experiments in musical theater have unan text as a number. but that it rises naturally and over to the idea of musical theater. I consider swerably proven that true theater music is a inevitably out of the scene and that it sinks it a great stroke of luck to have coUaborated great driving force, that it can lead a scene to back just as unobtrusively. Thus, in the ideal with such a writer as Paul Green in my first its climax with unparalleled speed and direct musical theater, the dialogue has a musical American attempt, Johnny Jolz,zson, since he ness, that it can establish the atmosphere of a quality even when there is no actual music, so had already grappled with the problem of mu scene instantaneously, where the playwright sical theater himself before this and had a con so often needs great stretches of dialogue. cept thereof which amazingly resembled the Music can do what the greatest performer one I had worked out in Europe. does at the height of his playing: it can win [The] reestablishment of true From the day 1visited him in North Carolina over the spectator with passion, it can create musical theater is scheduled to to discuss the idea of a musical play, my con an exalted mood, which makes the poet's fan victions have grown stronger and stronger tasy so much simpler to foUow and accept. take place inside of the enor that, in the rich musical quality of his speech, It would be wrong to conclude that the form mous territory between two gen in the simple human approach of his theme, in of musical theater which we are here consid res: opera and musical theater, the true folk humoc of his characters, and in ering could be brought into e::-dstence by turn the beauty of his poetry, all the conditions for ing out some incidental music and then leaning the creation of a new musical theater stand back. or by using music as a marginal sensual ready.
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGES NEW PUBLICATIONS
ARTICLES Bruhn, Siglind. · 'Kurt Weill: Violinkonzert.'' Melos 2 (1986): 84-105. Hosokawa, Shuhei. ''Distance, Gestus, Quotation: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagom1y of Brecht and Weill." International Reuiew ofthe Aesthetics ofSociology ofMusic 16 (1985) : 181-199. Lucchesi, Joachim. "Kurt Weill: Meister kunstvoller Tovialitat. ·• Musik und Gesellschafl 3 (1985) : 147-148. Lucchesi, Joachim. "illustrator der Moderne: Franz S. Bruinier, der erste Brecht Komponist." Music und GesaJ/schaft 5 (1985) : 276-278. Roth, Johannes. ''Hans Heinsheimer.'' Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin (15 August 1986) : 7 Walker, Bob Matthew. 'The Legend of Lotte Lenya .' · Plays and Players Oune 1986) : 9-11.
BOOKS Allain, Marcel and Pierre Souvestre. Fant6mas. New York: Morrow, 1986. 324 p. $17.95. ["Modernized version'' of the 1915 translation.) Danzi, Michael. American Musician in Germany 1924-1939: Memoirs ofthe Jazz, Entertain KLJHT WEILL ment, and Mouie World of Berlin during the M-eimar Republic. Schmitten: Norbert DEtl PROTACO 1ST Reucker, 1986. 294 p. $32.50. l'I II l'IIUI \L0\1-.1 Eisner, Lotte H. Fritz Lang. New York: Da Capo, 1986. 416 p. $13.95. l \I\ I· l{S \I. 1.lll'l 10\ \I) a3lf' Herrmann, Dorothy. S. f. Perelman, a Life. New York: Putman, 1986. Jacobi, Lotte. Theater & Dance Photographs. Woodstock: Countryman Press, 1972. 47 p. $10.95. Kline. Herbert. comp. New Theatre and Film: 1934-1937. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. 384 p. $13.95. O'Conner, John and Lorraine Brown. The Federal Theatre Project: Free, Adult, Uncensored. London: Methuen, 1980. 228 p. $20.95. New reprint editions from Universal Edition (Postfach 3, A-1015 Vienna, Willett, John. Caspar Neher: Brecht's Designer. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1986. Austria) and available from European [Published in the U.S. by Metheun, $13.95) American Music Distributor's Corp. Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (P.O. Box 850, Valley Forge, PA 19482. New York: Pantheon, 1985. 444 p. $8.95. (215) 648-0506.) DISSERTATIONS Gresham, Jonathan W. ':A.spects of Style in Five Works for Winds by Kurt Weill.'' D.M.A. thesis, Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, 1986. Hauff, Andreas. ''Die Biihnenwerke Kurt Weills auf Textvorl~gen von Kaiser, GoU und Neher." Masters thesis, University of Mainz, 1985.
KURT WEILL RECORDINGS The Complete Sarah Vaughan on Mercury, Vol IT. Mercury 826327-1. [Includes ''My Ship,'' ''September Song,'' and' 'Lost in the Stars''] The Greatest Recordings of the Broadway Musical Theater. The Franklin Mint Record Soci ety. Archive CoUection. 61-64. [Contains a reissue of 8 songs from the original Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill album) Riki 'faro/sky sings Kurt Weill. Fanfare DFL 926. September Song. Lotte Lenya. CBS MP 39513 [Cassette reissue of American Theater songs] Stratas Sings Weill. Nonesuch 79131. [also on Compact Disc] Supply and Demand. Dagmar Krause. Hannibal HNBL 1317. Symphony no. 1, Symphony no. 2. BBC Symphony Orchestra, Gary Bertini, conductor. London Enterprise 414 660-1. [reissue of 1968 release] Threepenny Opera. Original cast, Theater de Lys. Polydor 820 260-2. [Compact disc)
SCORES Der ZAR Weill, Kurt. Four Walt Whitman Songs, for voice and piano. Valley Forge, PA: European Jaj3t sich photographieren American Music, [1986). WeiU, Kurt. The Ballad of Magna Carta. Words by Maxwell Anderson. Valley Forge, PA: European American Music, [1986]. Weill, Kurt. Marie Galante, piece en 10 tableaux de Jacques Deval. Paris: Heugel, r1986]. Universal Edition No.8964
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE9 FROM THE ARCHIVES
lowing represents some of the more impor 2. Translations and Scripts. By David Farneth tant items. In addition, it can be assumed that English translation of Der Protagonist by the Research Center has copies of all materi John Eaton. English translations of Die Drei als listed in the "New Publications" column groschenoper by Robert David MacDonald and Discography Update: Weill Re of each newsletter. Hugh MacDiarmid. Lost in the Stars concert cordings 1928-1933 adaptation by Maurice Levine. 1. Scores. In response to Dr. Jurgen Schebera's arti A photocopy of Die Dreigroschenoper piano 3. Correspondence. cle, Kurt l#;ill's Early Recordings: 1928-1933, vocal score and parts used by Theo Mackeben Collections: Brecht/Weill, Lee Snyder/Le published in the last issue of the Newsletter were donated by his widow, Mrs. Loni Mack nya, Milton Caniff/Lenya, Mary Daniels/Le (Vol. 4. No. 1.), Alan Lareau from Madison, eben. Cantor Jeffrey Klepper graciously ar nya, Julius Marx/W!ill (Akadernie der Kunste, Wisconsin brought our attention to four addi ranged for the Foundation to obtain a Berlin), Gigi McGuire/Lenya. Single letters: tional recordings which were not included in photocopy of Weill's orchestration of Hatikvah Weill to Humperdinck, 16 March 1920 (Bib- that listing. All four were reissued on Vintage from the Jewish National and University Li 1iothek der Universitat zu Frankfurt). Martin 7850001, an LP reissue whose cover reads: brary, Jerusalem. The Westminster Choir Missner to Weill, 2July 1920. · 'Bert BrechUKurt Weill 3 Groschen Oper". College donated a photocopy of the orchestra The four selections are ''Barbara-Song'' and tions (in a copyist's hand) of two of the Rilke 4. Early Programs. • 'Seerauber-Jenny'' sung by Lenya, and songs: "Vielleicht, dass ich durch schwere Early concert programs dating from 1918, ''Tango-Ballade'' and '' Ballade vom Berge gehe' · and '' In diesem Dorfe steht das 1919, 1920, and 1922. Die Dreigroschenoper, 21 angenehmen Leben'' performed by Theo letzte Haus.'' September 1930, Cologne. Programs of Weill Mackeben and the 3-Groschen Band. Unfor Through an arrangement with Universal conducting operas in Ludenscheid. tunately, no release information for any of the Edition, the Foundation obtained photocopies original recordings is provided on the album of the following materials from the U.E. Ar 5. Oral History Interviews. cover. It should be noted that the two Lenya chives. More complete descriptions of each performances are different from those re New interviews were added to the collec item may be found in David Drew's forthcom tion by Herbert Borchardt, Hanne Hole leased on Telefunken A 752-755 which were ing book, Ki,rt Weill: A Handbook. reissued by Documente (6.41911}. sovsky, and Gigi McGuire. Alan Rich donated copies of his interviews with Michael A:z4stieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny Feingold, Hans Heinsheimer, Ernst Krenek, Typescript libretto, predating the full score. Teresa Stratas, H.H. Stuckenschmidt, Lys Recent Acquisitions Typescript libretto to Act m with Weill 's anno Symonette, and Virgil Thomson. Geoffrey tations. Abbott donated a copy of his interviews with The Weill-Lenya Research Center has in Mrs. Toni Mackeben. creased its holdings during the last year Die Burgschaft-Manuscript of piano-vocal through donations and purchases of books, score in EnvinStein's hand. scores, scripts, programs, correspondence, 6. Non-Commercial Recordings. audio and video tapes, and other materials. In Die Dreigroschenoper-Manuscript of piano Violin Concerto, Ralph Evans, violin; Mil September of last year, I undertook an acqui vocal score in Weill's and copyist's hand. Early waukee Chamber Orchestra. L'Opera de sitions trip to Germany in an attempt to find typescript of play with Brecht's annotations. Quat 'Sous, four selections for four saxo sources of additional documents and to estab Galley proofs of 1928 U.E. script with correc phones arranged by Jean-Marie Londeix. Walt lish relationships with various archival institu tions by Weill and others. Manuscripts of Whitman Songs, Arthur Kent; Utah Sym tions. Among the institutions visited were, in "Zuhfilterballade," and ''Kanonen-Song" in phony Orchestra; Maurice Abravanel, cond. Berlin: Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv, Deutsche popular arrangements by Jerzy Fitelberg. Symphony no. 2, University of Louisville Sym Staatsbibliothek, Akademie der Kunste, phony. Threepenny Opera, BBC 1978. Deutsche Rundfunk, Deutsche Oper, RIAS Happy End-· 'Bilbao-Song.'' Manuscripts of Threepenny Opera, Prince George Civic Op Berlin, Berlin Landesarchiv, Deutsche Bib two piano-vocal arrangements in unknown era. Kiddush (two performances donated by liothek-Musikarchiv, Berlin Staatsbibliothek. hand. Jeffrey Klepper). Recordare, Manchester Hochschule fur Musik; and in other parts of University Chamber Chorus. Germany: Institut fur Theater-, Film- und Der Lindbergh/lug-' ' Vorstellung des Fernsehwissenschaft der Universitat zu Koln Fliegers Charles Lindbergh.'' Manuscript of 7. Recordings-Collections (Cologne), Westdeutscher Rundfunk (Co rehearsal score in Weill's hand. David Hummel of the Archives of the logne), Hessischer Rundfunk (Frankfurt), American Musical Theatre graciously donated Deutscher Rundfunk (Frankfurt), Hindemith Der Protagonist-Manuscript of piano-vocal cassette tape copies of all recordings in his Institut (Frankfurt), Deutsche Bibliothek score in unknown hand. collection pertaining to Kurt Weill. A complete (Frankfurt), Bibliothek der Universitat zu listing may be found in the catalog to that col Frankfurt, Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Mar Royal Palace-Manuscript of piano-vocal lection: Hummel, David. The Collector's bach; and the Zurich Stadtarchiv. Information score in Arthur Willner's hand with correc Guide to the American Musical Theatre. Metu gathered during this trip will be helpful as we tions by Weill. Typescript of libretto with cor chen, N .J.: Scarecrow Press, 1984. 2 vols. compile a ''union list'· of Kurt Weill materials rections by Weill. The Deutsche Bibliothek-Musikarchiv, throughout the world. Berlin under the direction of Dr. Heinz Lanzke Although it is impossible to publish here a Der Silbersee-Manuscript of piano-vocal donated reel-to-reel copies of all requested complete list of current acquisitions, the fol- score in Erwin Stein's hand. Weill recordings on 78 lps in their collection.
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 10 ~erenb £ebmann -Uerein - f;)alberftabt
8. Videotapes.
Seven Deadly Sins and Don't Be Afraid, .J.I., ~ bi.t.11.1~ unl\'U"t l'ik&J.:ihn~,·n ,lrb.:·1:.:.1....-r1-,"' t...-r.uiil,:ih...-n u•1r Pina Bausch at the Brooklyn Academy of Mu ,1m ~lcnstag, ocn 22. 1uni 1()20, abcnos 8 Ubr sic. Mahagonny Songspiel, Downtown Cham 1m ~vo~n €-,,.,1 1'", .~.:i{11w•· ..--111 , ber Players. The World of Tomorrow: 1939 New 1-ork World's Fair. Trio for Lovers, CBS Daytime 90 (a pilot soap opera starring Le KONZERT nya). Mutter Courage, ZDF production star ,~11 Nm U>l'C urt• cd..iubcn, '5... un~ '11:>h. ,t-..-rlC'u ~nschot1scn 1:ucrl>utd} rr~tbc'Tlft ring Lenya. dni1.1la~n M.~ • ····-·- -- - ~ - -··- Qx~ng: Qldulcin
10. Clippings ofOriginal Productions. L'Opera de Quat 'Sous, Paris 1937. JRar .)t('~tr ~tN1nl.,,mt"11 :.. :Jn,.,itnn\,d:)4 . ,_ ... VI, ( 1544 di.II., fondu MMle dei Coru;erll) VENEROi 19 OICEMBR.E 19u · XII · ALLE ORE HI ===- PRIMA ESEC UZIONE IN ITALIA - OP.LL' OPERA SCOU.STICA OU ·• SONGSflf.L ,, DER JASAGER MAHAGONNY Above: tl':lt soi..,, COMO Of lt.A0 AUJ I'. o• c 11 £ffta P£1. 50LI L OAattsnu. Program from a 22 June 1920 concert in Halberstadt featuring Weill as accompa KURT WEILL nist. Two of his early songs, ESECUTORI "Abendlied," and "Die stille Stadt" DER JASAGER: " JUGENDCHOR ,. DI ZURlGO. MM-tAGONNY : LOTTE LENYA • HANNY STUTZ . OifO DE PA$ETTI were performed by soprano Elisabeth ALBER r P ETERS • OODA cor-;RAD. EYER.IC A LOORI. Feuge. DlRETTORI D£R JASAGER : Robert BLUM - MAHAGONNY : Maurice DE A6RAVANEL Below: ORCHCSTR.A OELL'AUGUSTEO, JN PJCCOt,£ f0RMA2l0NI Dlrettore dJ Ktoa; HAN'S CURJ £.L Program for Der Jasager and Maha gonny Songspiel in Rome, 29 December 1933, featuring Lenya, Robert Blum, Maurice Abravanel, and Hans Curjel. KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 11