New Publications
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NEW PUBLICATIONS ARTICLES Kater, Michael H. 'The Revenge of the Fathers: The Demise of Modern Music at the End of the Weimar Republic." German Studies Review 15, no. 2 (May 1992): 295-313. Lareau, Alan. "1ne German Cabaret Movement During the Weimar Republic." Theatre journal 43 (1991): 471-90. · Lucchesi, Joachim. "Contextualizing The Threepenny Opera: Music and Politics." Com munications from the international Brecht Society 21, no. 2 (November 1992): 45-48. Lucchesi, Joachim. " ... ob Sie noch deutscher lnlander sind? Der Komponist Kurt Weill im Exil." Ko"espondenzen 11-12-13 (1992): 42-44. Published by the Gesellschaft fur Theaterpadagogik Niedersachsen, Hannover. Stempel, Larry. 'The Musical Play Expands." American Music 10, no. 2 (Summer 1992): 13&-69. Stern, Guy and Peter Schon back. "Die Vertonung Werfelscher Dramen." ln Franz We,fel im Exit, edited by Wolfgang Nehring and Hans Wagener, 187-98. Bonn: Bouvier, 1992. Wagner, Gottfried. "ll teatro de Weill e Brecht." Musica e Dossier41 Oune 1990): 74-79. WiBkirchen, Hubert. "Mimesis und Gestus: Das 'Llebeslied' aus der Dreigroschenoper (Brecht/Weill)." Musik und Unterricht 5 (1990): 38-44. BOOKS Jacob, P. Walter. Musica Prohibida-Verbotene Musik: Ein Vortrag im Exit. Hrsg. und kommentiert von Kritz Pohle (Schriftenreihe des P. Walter Jocob-Archivs. nr. 3). Hamburg: Hamburger Arbeitsstelle fur deutsche Exilliteratur, 1991. Wagner, Gottfried. Weill e Brecht. Pordenone, Italy: Studio Tesi, 1992. Weill, Kurt Kurt Weill:de Berlin aBroadway. Traduitetpresentepar Pascal Huynh. Paris: Editions Plume, 1993. RECORDINGS ''Kurt Weill: Un Pianoforte a Broadway." Roberto Negri, piano. Riverrecords CDR 5405. "Laura Goes Weill" Laura Goes Blue (rock ensemble). Industrial Jive Records 04-14-92- 01. Lost in the Stars. Soloists: Gregory Hopkins, Arthur Woodley, Cynthia Clarey, Carol Woods, Reginald Pindell, Jamal Howard, and Richard Vogt; Orchestra of St. Luke's; Concert Chorale of New York; Julius Rudel, conductor. MusicMasters Classics 01612- 67100-2. "Musicals." Lambert Wilson, baritone; Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo; John McGlinn, conductor. EMI CDC 7 49792 2. (fncludes "Love Song" from Love Life.) 7 pieces tirees de /'opera de quafsous (Sieben Sti.icke nach der Dreigroschenoper) arranged by Stefan Frenkel. Ensemble Stanislas; Alexis Galperine, violin;Jeff Cohen, piano. Gallo CD-676. Symphonies nos. 1 and 2. Gewandhausorchester Leipzig; Edo de Waart, conductor. Philips 434 171-2. [Compact disc reissue.) "Unquiet Peace: The Lied Between the Wars." Cyndia Sieden, soprano; William Sharp, baritone; The New York Festival of Song; Steven Blier, piano. [Includes "Ofrah's Lieder," "Berlin im Licht," "Muschel von Margate," and "Casars Tod" from Der Silbersee. I "Ute Lempersings Kurt Weill Vol. 2." UteLemper; RIASSinfonietta Berlin;John Mauceri, conductor. London 436 417-2. [On London in the US; Decca elsewhere.) Violin Concerto. Eivind Aadland, violin; Norwegian Wind Ensemble; Ole Kristian Ruud, conductor. Simax PSC 1090. Violin Concerto, Vom Tod im Wald, Das Berliner Requiem. Alexandre Laiter, tenor; Peter Kooy, bass; Elisabeth Glab, violin; Ensemble Musique Oblique; Philippe Herreweghe, conductor. Harmonia Mundi HMC 901422. Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 11 Number 1 15 BooKs columns by Hans Redlich that are notably information. In addition, Andrew Lamb has more perceptive and appreciative than what provided short entries on Happy End and The New Grove Dictionary of lady in the Dark. ('They seem rather like Edited by Stanley Sadie. all but a few enthusiasts were thinking and Opera. writing at that date: afterthoughts.) In his preface, Stanley Sadie (london:Macmillan, 1992}. Four has warned readers that "very few indi volumes. Kurt Weill's creative achievement is of vidual works [in the categories of operetta. profound importance to the modern op- music-al, music theater] are assigned en era stage. Alone among his numerous tries of their own." But if the musical Or Opera Grove, as it's familiarly called. contemporaries who, like himself, strove comedy AKingdomfora Cow, Happy End, a Four handsome volumes. red-bound, gold for a regeneration of opera and for its play with songs, and lady in the Dark, a play topped. Over five million words; nearly release from Wagnerian dominance, he with dream sequences set to music, are in. 5,000 pages: 1,300 authors. The typogra worked on the firm basis of a novel then why not]ohnnyjolmsott, Knickerbocker phy makes the volumes a pleasure to read: operatic conception.... This new oper Holiday, One Touch ofVenus , The Firebrand the binding allows them, from ''Aachen" atic type of his [whose constituents ofFlorence, and, above all, Love Life? Not through "Der Zar liisstsich photographieren" Redlicb summarizes] deeply influenced room for them all, of course; but if Hinton and ''Zylis-Gara, Teresa." to lie open on the a whole generation of composers. had been allowed to deal with more than desk. (The typesetting is British. the print just three of the ten American works he ing and binding American.) There areabun Redlich, in fact, is the only Grove author could have buttressed further his defense to note Weill's continuing influence on com dant and excellent illustrations, chosen not of the Broadway Weill. posers who remained in Germany after he just for decorative value but for informative had left it (among them Wagner-Regeny, Hinton, like Drew, quotes Virgil content. My brief is to review Opera Grove's Thomson's obituary tribute. "Every new treabnent of Kurt Weill. Perhaps that's who gets ample treatment in Opera Grove. and Fried Walter. about whom I find noth work was a new model. a new shape, a new rather as if 171e Tailor and Cutter sent a solution ofdramatic problems." From T.W. critic to assess some new movie on the basis ing in any Grove). Whether Redlich'sclaim that works by Britten, Gershwin, Menotti, Adomo's obituary. he quotes, "The profile of the men's clothes. Let me first pay brief Blitzstein "testify to the lasting penetration of this composer. ..is hardly commensurate general tribute to the enterptise. of Weill's influence" is - except in with the concept of 'composer."' And he Opera Grove is a pleasure to use. It's laid Blitzstein's case - perhaps more debat adds: "His putative metamorphosis in out with clarity. Toe worklists and bibliog able. America represented less a significant de raphies are easy on the eye, not labyrinths parture. as often maintained, than the con in the run-on style of Musik in Gesciiichte New Grove (1980) has fifteen columns by tinuation of a development already under David Drew (plus, as in each ofthese co unts, und Gegenwart or the Enciclopedia dello way;" and he takes issue (as others have worklist and bibliography). This brief mono spettacolo. It is much handier in fonnatthan done) with Drew's phrase "one of music's either of those (or than The New Grove graph is surely the best piece of writing great 'might-have-beens."' The phrase is Dictionary ofAmerican Music). Since Op about Weill that exists. Each word is strong-Drew might put itdiffer ently now weighed, each sentence charged, and the era Grove arrived some months ago, I've - but it needs to be read in context: been consulting itjusl about every day. ft's whole is filled with knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and acute commentary. Five ln his own generation he had few peers: become the work of first reference for all sections deal with Life, Reputation, Early but it is with greater composers whose matters operatic. The physical pleasure it gifts we re partly unfulfilled or partly continues to give is not just a bonus: it Works, Central Works, and Broadway Works. The second ends: "A quarter of a squandered that he is most profitably to reflects thinking that has ordered and pre be compared. Some aspects ofhin1 may sented so huge an amount of information in century after Weill's death there is still widespread ignorance of his work apart also call Bizet to mind. others the most useful and accessible way. from Die Dreigrosche11oper ...coupled with a Musorgsky. But even if Weill remains Opera Grove is not just the New Grove seemingly unbridgeable division of opin one ofmusic's great 'might-have-beens.' opera entries gathered and updated. About ion." I'll return to Drew's sixth, final sec hisactual achievement is substantial and 90 per cent of it, the editor estimates, was tion, called TI1e Two Weills. The entry in likely to prove of enduring significance. newly commiss.ioned and written. There The New Grove Dictionary ofAmericanMus ·ic When Hinton calls Street Sce11e Weill's are articles of merit on big general subjects: (1986), two and a half columns by Larry "chef d'oeuvre. an achievement that embod "Opera'' itself, "Libretto," etc. One reads Stempel, follows Drew lines, in a summary, ies the best of his European and American them with interest. But it's for specific fact, more generalized. less interesting way. aspirations," he echoes Weill's own claims information, and stimulation that one most The main entry for Weill in Opera Grove, for the piece. His arguing has a slightly often consults 17ie Grove Dictionary of Op getting-it-both-ways quality: on the one era. Its great strength is the series of about five and a half columns long, is by Stephen Hinton. the editor and author of hand. by changing, Weill was being consis articles on composers and their works. A tent; On the other. we, looking for consis long article on each important composer is the Cambridge Opera Handbook on Die Dreigroschenoper ,and the editor. with tency ordevelopment, wrongly apply a "con followed by a worklist and a bibliography; J. Schebera. of Kurt Weill: Musik und 17ieater, cept of 'composer.''' The argument was there are individual entries, usually by the anticipated by Drew: same author, and some of them also long, gesammelte Sclzrifien (both 1990).