KURT WEILL NEWSLETfER Volume 11, Number 2 Fall 1993

Three Value d Collaborators

Top: Maurice Abravanel confers with Weill at the Kassel premiere of Aufstieg imd Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, 1930.

Middle: Hans W. Heinsheimer

Bottom: Agnes de Mille rehearses dancers for the premiere of One Touch of Venus. 1943.

IN THIS ISSUE

T HREE VALUED C OLLABORATORS s

ZAR AND P ROTAGONIST IN SANTA Fe 8

FROM THE A RCHIVES: R ECENT A CQUISITIONS 10

B OOKS 14 Kim H. Kowalke and Horst Edler, eds. A Stranger Here Myself: Kurt Weill-Studien Ciselher Schubert Pascal Huynh, ed. Kurt Weill: de Berlin aBroa dway Evelyn Pieiller Paul Cummins. Dachau Song: The Twentieth-Century Odys­ sey of Herbert Zipper; Joachim Lucchesi, ed. Hermann Scherchen: Werke und Briefe in 8 Banden; Band I , Schriften 1. Christopher Hailey

PERFORMANCES 17 Street Scene in Munich Horst Koegler Mahagonny Songspiel and Knickerbocker Holiday in London Patrick O'Connor Cry, the Beloved Country in Chicago James Zychowicz Der Jasager in New York Stephen Hinton Symphony No.1 in Philadelphia Ofer Ben-Amots

R ECORDINGS 21 Lost in the Stars Jon Alan Conrad Vom Tod im Wald, Concerto for violin and wind instru­ ments, Das Berliner Requiem Pascal Huynh Ute Lemper, Patti LuPone, and Barbra Streisand Michael Morley

C OLUMNS Kurt Weill Edition Report 4 New Publications 13 Selected Performances 23 News

mission by donating a number of books, The New York Philharmonic cepted cataloging practices. They will recordings, photographs, and posters. fonn the basis for a future in-house, on­ Celebrates "Brecht, Weill, and The Zentrum will specialize in document­ · Berlin, 1929-1935" ing Weill's life in Dessau. line catalog of the Research Center's hold­ ings. This in-house database will inte­ The Kurt-Weill-Zentrum also serves Accompanying the four December per­ as the headquarters fo r the newly­ grate cataloging records with repository formances by the New York Philharmonic finding aids as well as provide links to founded Kurt-WeiJI-Gesellschaft. which full-text documents in electronic form . of Die sieben Todsiinden and Berg's Lulu currently has twenty-three members. The Suite will be lectures, a pre-concert re­ city of Dessau had its first Kurt-Weill­ Houston Grand Opera mounts cital, and a special evening of music in­ Festival in March 1993 and plans a large Street Scene spired by the German cabaret. This col­ festival of concerts and stage works to be lection of events represents one of the held biennially in order to bring Weill's On 28 January 1994, the Houston orchestra's newly instituted "celebration music to a wider audience, including the Grand Opera prem.ieres its new produc­ weeks," intended to focus attention on regions of the former East Germany. The tion of Weill's Broadway opera, in a stag­ the musical and cultural milieu of a par­ intervening years will feature smaller ing by Francesca Zambello. Ward ticular program within the regular sub­ events. Planned for 1994 is a guest per­ Holmquist conducts an all-American cast scription series. The centerpiece of the formance of Die Dreigrosd1enoper by the that includes Robert McFarland (Frank week, the full orchestra's Berg and Weill Leipziger Schauspielbaus. Maurrant). Sheri Greenawald (Anna program, featuring soprano Angelina MawTant). Lee Merrill (Rose Maurrant), Reaux and conducted by music director Information about lhe Kurt-Weill­ Kurt Masur, will be presented on con­ Gesellschaft and the Kurt-WeilJ-Zentrum secutive nights, Wednesday 15 Decem­ and its activities may be obtained from: ber through Saturday 18 December at Kurt-Weill-Zentrum Dessau 8:00 pm. A series of lectures at 7:00 pm, Ebertallee 67 one each on three of the four evenings, 06846 Dessau precede the main concerts. These will Germany focus on Kurt Weill and offer perspec­ Telephone: 0340-826 161 tives on Europe in those pivotal years. Fax: 0340-220 6040 Michael Steinberg, the San Francisco Symphony's Program Annotator and Lec­ turer, will deliver the lectures on Wednes­ day and Thursday; Kim Kowalke of the Kurt Weill Foundation and University of Weill-Lenya Research Center Wins Rochester presents the pre-concert dis­ National Endowment Grant cussion on Saturday. A performance of Weill's String Quartet, op.8 by members The National Endowment for the Hu­ of the Philharmonic figures as the pre­ manities, Division of Preservation and concert event on Friday night The Weill Access, has awarded the Weill-Lenya Re­ celebration will conclude in New York's search Center of the Kurt Weill Founda­ Merkin Hall on Sunday 19 December at tion a grant in the amount of $84,674 to 7:00 pm with a song recital by Ms. Reaux afford intellectual access to its multime­ and pianist Robert Kapilow. dia collection of research materials. Matching funds are being provided by the Kurt Weill Foundation. David Farneth is the Project Director, John Andrus the Project Archivist, and David Kurt-Weill-Zentrum Opens in Stein the Archives Assistant. Dr. Rich­ ard Smiraglia is providing consultation. Dessau The twelve-month project supports the The Kurt-Weill-Zentrum in Dessau, arrangement. description, and preserva­ Germany celebrated its formal opening tion of manuscript and published scores, on 11 September 1993. At noon, the scripts and libretti, correspondence, per­ Kurt-Weill-Gesellschaft held its found­ formance documentation, audio record­ ing meeting at the Palais Dietrich. Later ings, video recordings, films, and oral in the day, Dessau's mayor, Dr. Jurgen history interviews. Bibliographic infor­ Neubert, inaugurated th e Kurt-Weill­ mation about the various collections will Zentrum at a ceremony which featured a be available to researchers worldwide performance of the String Quartet, op. 8 through the Research Library Group's and remarks by Andreas Altenhof, direc­ RUN database. Access to the database is tor of the Zentrum. The Landestheater available in the reference depaitments of contributed to the festivities with a per­ most academic and large public libraries, formance of Die sieben Todsiinden. and also via personal computer and mo­ The Zentrum, located in the dem through Internet or by direct ar­ Meisterhaus Oskar Schlemmers of the rangement with the Research Libraries Bauhaus complex, is designated as a Group. "mediothek," with collections devoted The electronic bibliographic records primarily to published materials about created under this grant conform to stan­ Weill and his times. The Kurt Weill dards set by the Library of Congress Foundation has assisted the Zentrum's MARC format and other nationally-ac-

Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 11 Number 2 2 NEWS

signs. Martin Pakledjnaz executes the cos­ tumes and the lighting designer is Noele Stollmack. An all-day symposium on 29 January, sponsored by the Goethe House and HGO, will include presentations by Stephen Hinton, Lys Symouette, and chair Kim Kowalke, among others. The pertomiances are in the Brown The­ ater of the Wortham TI1eater Center in downtown Houston. Additional dates are 30January,2,5,8,and l1February 1994. A co-production with theTh eater im Pfalzbau, Ludwigshafe11. Germany, and the Theater desWestens in Berlin, the H GO Stref't Scene production crosses the Atlantic during the 1994-95 season to Lltdwigshafen and Ber­ Anno Ma urra nt (Andrea Cal.Zel), George Jones (Peter Pelrov), and lin. where it will be performed in English. Emma J ones (Gisela Ehrens perger) in the Munich Staatstheater a m Glirtne,:platz product.ion of Strut Sce11t. (reviewed on p.20) Photo: Mo11ica Matthias. Philadelphia Orchestra Plays Weill from Wednesday4 May through Saturday7 A Semester of Weill in North More and more. Wei !I's music is enteri11g May 1994. WeiU's score will be perfmmed Carolina the repertory of the so-called "big live" (a in itso1igioal key and orchestrations. Teresa term once used for the orchestras of Bos­ Stratas has been cast in the leading role of The North Carolina School of the Arts is ton. Chicago, Cleveland. New York, and Liza Elliot. Other members of the cast have dedicating an ambitious series of stage pro­ Philadelphia) and other top American or­ not yet been determined. ductions. concert performances, and film chestras. This fall. the Philaclelphia Or­ Also offered on this year's schedule will screenings to Weill repertoire during the chestra. under recently appointed music be Rodgers and Hammerstein'sAlleg ro. with 1994 s pring semester. The school, with a dfrector WolfgangSawallisch. performs two a third show to be announced ata later date. combined graduate and undergraduate en­ works by Weill. Cily Center plans to provide each show with rollment ofaround 800, offers instruction in Maestro Sawallisch presented the First a modicum of staging and retain enough most of the perfo rming and fine arts. The Symphony in concerts over the weekend of dialogue to preserve dramatic structure. department of music will coordinate the 9 October 1993. Daniel Webster. music presentation of three major Weill stage critic of the Philadelphia f11quirer. com­ Der Lindberghflug Video Wins works. each in collaboration with another mented that the conductor "led the orches­ Opera Screen Award department within the school. Au/stiegund tra through it with greatcare and propulsive Fall der Stadt Mahagonny heads the lineup, force. He made the playing reflect time and DuringtheAugust 1993competition held bowing on 28 and 30 January and 1 Febru­ place - and opened a door for listeners and atthe Opera de Paris-Bastille. Opera Screen, ary 1994, in cooperation with the design and players alike." (See page 20 for a full re­ an international festival and competition for production departments. Somewhat of a view.) audio-visual opera and musk theater pro­ rarity in arts schools, this curriculum offers On November ll-l3. Charles Dutoit, ductions established by the IMZ/lnterna­ professional i11struction in the constellation Music Director of the Montreal Symphony tional Music Centre. awarded its prize in of disciplines supporting dramatic produc­ Orchestra, will lead the orchestra as guest the category of Video Creations to the tions, including costuming. lighting, and conductor in a performance ofthe Concerto Institut National de l'Audiovisuel/La Sept/ set design. for violin and winds at the Academv of Westdeutscher Rundfunk co-production of Die Dreigrosche11oper follows in April (20 Music. featuring violinist Chantal Juillet. Der Lindbergh/lug. Prizes are awarded in through 24). presented in association with five categories: Stage Recording, Cinemato­ The program. which includes Wagner's the drama department. On 5, 6, 7, and 8 Prelude to !,ohe11gri11, Act I. and graphic/Televisual Adaptation ofan Opera, May, the department of dance lends its Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, will be TV-Opera, Video Creations. and Documen­ forces to a production of The Seven Deadly repeated in New York at Carnegie Hall on taries and Opera Magazines. Also a finalist Sins. Additional events indude a faculty 16 November. Ms. Juillet is former concert­ in the Video Creations category was the chamber music concertin February and the master of the Montreal Symphony Orches­ Opera de Lyon production of Die sieben screening of a documentary on Weill, the tra and presently the Music Director of the Todsiinden, directed by Peter Sellars. con­ latter to be accompanied by a panel discus­ Saratoga Chamber Music Festival. ducted by Kent Nagano. withT eresa Stratas. sion on the composer. Jan Latham-Konig leads the orchestra and chorus ofthe Westdeustcher Rundfunk, Two Symposia with Relevance to Stratas Sings in lady in the Dark at with vocal soloists Wolfgang Schmidt, Weill City Center Herbert Peckler, Lorenz Minth, and Christoph Scheeben, in the musical perfor­ Two scholarly conferences of importance During the 1993-94 season in New Yurk, mance of Der Lindbergh/lug. The 45-minute to Weill research will take place during the City Center Thealer will inaugurate "En­ production. which makes use of contempo­ first halfof 1994: one in Frankfurt am Main cores! Great American Musicals in Con­ raneous archive and studio footage to recre­ and the other at Harvard University. Believ­ cert." an annual series of classic Broadway ate Charles Lindbergh's historic flight across ing that the present state of exile studies musicals presented in concert lady in /he the Atlantic, is staged and directed by Jean­ calls for a new initiative, a committee of Darll, Weill's 1940 collaboration with Moss Fran<;:ois Jung. The cast includes Richard scholars from Haivard and universities in I lart and Ira Gershwin. is among three Erwin Sammel. Peter Wollasch, Alexis Germany and Austria have organized a two­ works slated for performance in this first Nitzer, Volker Mareck, Philippe Cal, Daniel pari conference in Germany and the United year and will play four consecutive nights Schropfer. and Didier Conti. States, on the migration of musicians to

Kurt we,11 Newsletter Volume 11 Number 2 3 NEWS KURT WEILL EDITION REPORT

America during the period 1930-1950. The first part took place at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen in Germanye ntitled ''Pre­ Facsimile of Dreigroschenoper Autograph to Inaugurate KWE history; Expulsion, Retroaction." The Harvard symposium will complete the pair in May of 1994, focusing on the emigres' Alits Ju.ly meetings in Santa Fe the Kurt WeiTI Edition Editorial Board commissioned the situation and work in the Unite d States. first eight volumes to be undertaken by the project (see accompanying list). The catalog of Problems of acculturation and artistic iden­ works included in these volumes offers a sampling of stage works from throughout the tity will form the center of the discussions, with a session devoted exclusively to Kurt composer's career, as well as cham her music. songs, and pieces incorporating solo violin with Weill. Participants in the Weill session will larger ensembles. The Board has assig ned to each volume an editor or editorial team. include Alexander Ringe r, Stephen Hinton, Individual schedules may permit editing to begin immediately or sometime in the coming David Kilroy, David Drew, and Kim Kowalke. months. The first completed volume will be published in 1995, with subsequent volumes ln February 1994, a cooperative effort among the Paul Hindemith-lnstitut, the appeaiing at a rate of one or two per year the reafter. Frankfurter Musikhochschule, and the The first published productoftheKWE will appear prior to the initial edited work, however. Universitat Frankfurt/Main results in the It will be a color facsimile edition of Weill's autograph score for Die Dreigrosd1e11oper, symposium "Biographische Konstellation und ki.instlerisches Handeln." The focus including some critical text and essays will be on the concept of "autonomous mu­ by Stephen Hinton and Kim Kowalke. sic," more specifically on such issues as It is to be available in late 1994. Musical Autonomy and Personal Expres­ The First Volumes to Appear sion, Music and Politics, Busi11ess and Those who have followed closely the Music, etc. Scholars presenting papers progress of tile Weill Edi_tion will note The Editorial Board of the Kurt Weill Edition has include Walter Zimmermann, Dietmar Hol­ that the Editorial Board has reorga­ land, and Kim Kowalke. commissioned the following eight volumes. nLzed the series structure. From the Current plans anticipate the release of one or Lost in the Stars at the Habimah previous arrangement of nine fairly two volumes per year beginning in 1995 and extending into the next century. The volumes The Habimah National Theatre of Israel specific categories, the Board has dis­ will be organized into three broad series as will open on 5 March 1994 Lost itz the Stars tilled a simpler, tripartite grouping in­ indicated below: at its 1,000-seat auditorium in Tel Aviv. cluding Music Theater and Concert Yossi Polack, one of Israel's leading actors, will play Stephen Kumalo. Polack is known Music. TI1e general heading of Mis­ Series I - Music Theater for his portrayals ofthe Father (Strindberg), ceUanea wiU e ncompass compositions Othello (Shakespeare), and Big Daddy (Cat outside these broad categories, such Tin Israel's "1993 Singer of Lady in the Dark on a Hot Roof). as incidental music for plays, juvenilia, the Year.'' Eti Ankri, will play Irina, and etc. Danny Litaoi lakes tl1e part of the Chorus Die Dreigroschenoper Leader. UriPasterwilldirect. Allothe rcast Volume commissioning and series members will be drawn from the theater's permanent company. reorganization were not the only is­ Mahagonny Songspiel Lost in the Stars was a hit when it was first suesaddressed in Santa Fe. TI1e meet­ produced in Israel at ilie Habimah in 1953. ings devoted a significant amount of Die sieben Todsunden Thar production ran 400 performances and time to the development of very spe­ starred Aharon Meskin. dfic guidelines - on the basis of gen­ Firebrand of Florence Mahagonny Songspiel and The e ral policies established previously - Tsar at Manhattan School of Music for editorial work. The challe nges pre­ sented by Weill'soeuvre are varied and Series II - Concert Music 1l1e Opera Theater of the Manhattan complex. Great care is necessary to SchoolofMusicopensits 1993-94season on Wednesday, 8 December 1993, at 8:00 pm define precisely tl1e balance between Chamber Music editorial intervention and restraint in String Quartet in b minor in the John C. Borden Auditorium with a Sonata for Cello and Piano Weill double bill of Mahagonny Songspiel preparing the composer's music for String Quartet, op. 8 and The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken. use by scholars and performers. The Frauentanz Subsequent performances are on Friday, 10 /eh sitze da un' esse Klops December, at 8:00 pm and Sunday, 12 De­ Guide for KWE Volume Editors, cur­ cember, at 2:30 pm. rently in preparation. incorporates ilie Music with Solo Violin Mahagonny Songspiel will be sung in the results of the Board's deliberations. Concerto for Violfn and Wind Orchestra original German and English text ofBrecht, Der neue Orpheus and Georg Kaiser's libretto lo 171e Tsarwill Information concerning subscription be presented in the English translation of and distribution will be available in Lionel Salter. Rhoda Levine stages both mid-1994 from European American Songs for Voice and Piano productions, for which David Gilbert con­ Music Corporation, which will be pub­ ducts the Manhattan School of Music Op­ Series Ill - Miscellanea era Orchestra. The set designer is Chris lishing the Edition in association with Muller, costumes are by Constance the Weill Foundation. Hoffman, and lighting design is by Chris !Volume commissions forthcoming) Akerlind.

Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 11 Number 2 4