MEMORABLE SELECTIONS FROM CURRENT REVIEWS CULLED FROM OUR CLIPPING SERVICES German-to-English Translations by Lys Symonette and William Madison
LONDON SINFONIETTA: "BEANFEST:' 16 APRIL 1985 Although the performance of Di,e sieben Todsunden was rather conventional (the Anna l was weak; the male quartet was excel . . . So how is [ the Mahagonny Songspie/ ] to be put across to a lent), the audience rewarded it with its heartiest applause; the first 1985 British audience? David Alden, who produced, and David half comprised the bitter satire of the Requiem and the evil bur Fielding, who designed, had no doubts at all. Lots of crude sexual lesque of "Pantomime I.'' jokes (an inflatable lifesize rubber doll, for instance), lots of din, a pair of giant anti-Thatcher posters with movable pound and dollar Elisabeth Bauschmid signs to replace the lady's eyes, [ conductor] Simon Rattle with a Suddeutsche Zeitung toy rocket pointlessly strapped to his back, lots of repetition, and let Munich the music shift for itself. 12 June 1985 The repetition was the most startling element, and in a way the most interesting. A dispirited woman, with a child on a table beside "NEW YORK PRAISES GISELA MAY" her, began the proceedings by intoning "I like it. .. I like it. .. I like it With stormy applause and cries of bravo the audience of the Per ..." one or two hundred times. Though I didn't count, I don't think 1 forming Arts Center of the State University of New York at Pur exaggerate; if I were simply to transcribe her part on this page, my chase honored the actress and singer Gisela May. The artist from column would soon be filled. The effect was wildly boring; not ex the German Democratic Republic made a guest appearance in three actly numbing, however, for one wanted to scream. performances with works by Bertolt Brecht from four decades in 1 call the incident interesting because at no earlier time would a settings by Paul Dessau, Hanns Eisler, and Kurt Weill, and also with perfonner have got away with such behavior; a good old uninhibited a "Tribute to Marlene Dietrich." audience (such as Brecht admired) would have indulged in catcalls, and rightly so. Poor old Weill has thus, for the second time in one (Reprinted in its entirety) London season (a feeble version of the same piece having been National Zeitung prefixed to the ENO's brilliant Osud), missed the bus. Or perhaps Berlin, German Democratic Republic not. For at the end the audience burst into excited applause. They 9July 1985 liked it. "WEILL-REVUE" IN BERLIN Desmond Shawe-Taylor This was an evening one won't forget for a long time. Three The Sunday Times times we see Kurt Weill: a German, a Frenchman, an American. London Each time he is perfecL In Germany we understand ingenuity as a 21 April 1985 form of resistance to change. For us, the greatest genius is that composer in whose work we can identify no more than two unam MEMORIES biguous accents. Kurt W!ill didn't accept this definition of genius. He always adapted himself: he had to adapt and he could adapt .... At one time, the songs by Brecht and \¾!ill exercised a cunning This evening is for me one (if not the only) highlight of the 1985 impact on the victims of Nazism; I remember the inmates of Dachau season. chanting the revolutionary songs when marching to the roll call square for inspection. ukru Theater-Rundschau Herbert G. Luft June1985 B 'nai B'rith Messenger "WEILL-REVUE" IN HAMBURG Los Angeles, California 7 June 1985 The premiere of the Theater des \\estens Kurt-Weill-Revue in Hamburg's Operettenhaus was a huge success. The revue, nearly " ... AND THE HASSID DANCES ON" three hours long and featuring Hamburg's favorite daughter Nicole The most exciting event of the seven-day Israel Festival was a Heesters, concluded with endless ovations. Among the most spir Kurt Weill Evening with the Israel Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva under ited was the guest of honor: the amiable former chancellor, Helmut Mendi Roadan in the Jerusalem Sherover Theater: Die sieben Tod Schmidt, with his wife Loki .... The favorite, Nicole Heesters, silnden was linked with the Berliner Requiem and the "Pantomime smiled jubliantly. The young Ute Lemper received stormy ap I" [ from Der Protagonist] by the director, David Alden, who plause; she seemed scarcely able to believe her success .... A staged l#Jzzeck at the Met this year. "kurzweilliges" and lively program which, after all the crazy mix H was a great spectacle which brought Brecht 's somewhat acidu ture of this dark Berlin season, is an answer to prayer. lous social criticism closer to the end of this tumultuous century - Christian Frenzel and grippingly included the story of Jewish suffering. While parts of Utersener Nachrichten cadavers are piled into a heap - arms, legs, bodies in a giant toilet Otersen, FRG bowl - glass is crashing - who wouldn't be reminded of.the hor 1 June 1985 rendous examples of Bergen-Belsen, Maydanek, and Auschwitz? "WEILL-REVUE"FEVER JllTS HERMSDORF Merciless, blinding searchlights sweep the stage, motorcars threaten the audience, two astronauts pick their way through the Hurray! J won two tickets to the Kurt-Weill-Revue. For this I barrage of noise and garbage, walls collapse, a dog is lost, soldiers want to thank you very much. It was a wonderful surprise. The - in the spotted camouflage uniforms of the Israeli Army - lie performance was very good, the seats tenific. Now I want very down to die and - in the middle of this desert world - a Hassidic much to write to Ute Lemper [ featured dancer in the show ] . How Jew dances, unimpressed by it all. As if in an old movie projected can I get her address? much too fas(, he wriggles around, pressing a cassette player to his ear, and prays in front of a set piece which has been tumed into a Christa D., Eisenbruchstr., Hermsdorf Letters to the Editor .gigantic Wailing Wall; he prances about, unconcerned. He hops up and down: a Happy One at the edge of an abyss, and proceeds B .Z. merrily, his coattails Dying .... Berlin 16 April 1985
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 13 REVIEWS Der Silbersee. Bilhnen der duced to 22 musicians and placed on the stage Street Scene. Chautauqua - but with the actors and conductor unable to Stadt Gera. 1 November 1984; in make eye contact. It was possible to hear the Opera, Chautauqua, NY. 9, 12 August repertory through June 1985. lyrics, but the music sounded weak and ineffec 1985. tive with only single strings, and orchestra and Stadtische Theater Karl-Marx Stadt. singers often lost each other. Musicians came 5 May 1985; in repertory through to the premiere with as few as three orchestra June 1986. rehearsals (depending on their schedules at the Chautauqua Opera presented two fine per opera house) and were not of the highest cali formances of Street Scene in Norton Hall on the Musically and theatrically. Der Silbersee ber - those were too valuable to be spared grounds of the venerable Chautauqua Institu presents an extraordinary challenge, one from the opera. Actors in both productions had tion in upper New York State. The enormous which is not easily met by the standard ensem more than six weeks of intense rehearsals, but demands of W!ill's opera are not merely musi bles of either opera or theater companies. Best in neither production were the Severin and cal, but director Cynthia Auerbach, her staff described (not by the authors, but on a 1933 Fennimore any match for the vocal demands of and cast rose to the challenge admirably. recording of song selections) as "Eine Schaus the score. The young conductors, who usually Franco Colavecchia designed an impressively piel-Oper," Der Silbersee requires actors capa lead small stage-bands at dramatic houses, had massive brownstone set; Joseph Citarella's ble of sustaining a work which is predominantly no feeling for the spirit of the music. The disre costumes (from the New York City Opera pro spoken dialogue. and singers capable of mas gard for Weill's work was painful to hear. duction) were attractive and accurate, despite tering the operatic roles of Fennimore and Der Silbersee, 50 years after its premiere, is a slight 1950's influence in some of the women's Severin. We can't be certain how the problems still a genuinely effective piece of theater. A outfits. Marie Barrett's lighting, although gen were solved in the work's first performances, successful production requires an ensemble of erally quite good, might have served the longer but we do know of the compromise solutions of good singing actors and two excellent acting arias better with more variation. the New York City Opera in 1980 (where the singers, plus 35 first-rate musicians and an ex Street Scene requires so much of its per inclusion of other music by Weill steered the perienced conductor. These requirements formers: there are demanding arias and en work toward the operatic) and in Zurich in 1982 make a normal run wildly impractical for a the sembles. Broadway numbers. blues. and a (where the piece was transformed into a gigan atrical company, but the challenge of Der Silber boogie-woogie number, to list a few. The cast tic revue) - both changing Silbersee into some see can be met if there is genuine cooperation handled the more classical numbers beautifully, thing which was not "Schauspiel-Oper." between "Schauspiel'' and "Oper," with com but the Broadway and blues numbers were In Gera and Karl-Marx-Stadt, two dramatic promise on both sides but without sacrifice .ei sometimes slighted: conductor John de Main theaters cooperating with orchestras from local ther to drama or to music. Such a collaboration rushed the tempi and the singers did not always opera houses, recently tried to stage Der would be the highlight of any season, and audi seem to understand the requisite vocal style. A Silbersee without compromising either musical ences could not help but appreciate the ges few cuts-such as the deletion oftheJulia Rich or dramatic intentions, a worthy objective. Ul ture. man High School song-did not disjoint the op timately, both productions reified the enduring era. relevance of Kaiser's themes while failing to The cast, full of fine singer-actors, featured overcome the difficulties of the piece. JURGEN SCHEBERA some extraordinary performances. Spiro Ma The Gera production opted for a naturalistic Leipzig las was particularly moving as Frank Maurrant, staging. often presenting the action in semi inarticulate, insensitive, yet needy. Karen darkness: in Karl-Marx-Stadl. director Huffstodt and Carolann Page were the mother Hartwig Albiro chose to emphasize the artificial and daughter whose search for a world outside aspects of Kaiser's "think-piece'' with pro their oppressive existences brings the drama found results. He kept bis two-level stage to its inexorable end. Huffstodt's physical at nearly empty, with only a few set pieces to indi tractiveness, natural acting style, and fine sing cate changes of scene. Jn both productions, the ing made her an especially strong Mrs. stagecraft in the final scene (the miraculous Maurrant. As Rose, the hope of the family, freezing of the Silverlake) was extremely effec Page sang and acted with equal distinction. Mi tive. In Gera, an enormous white sheet flut chael Davis' characterization fused earnest tered down over the stage; in ness with the elegance of his Italianate tenor Karl-Marx-Stadt, the horizon opened and wid into the ideal Sam Kaplan: this was a perform ened in brilliant white light as Severin and Olim ance to be savored. Other highlights included made their crossing. Marion Pratnicki's delicious Emma Jones, one The warm and prolonged ovations at the pre of the I-Told-You-So's who infest every family mieres of both productions and at repeat per and every block; Gail Tremitiere and Richard formances confirmed the appreciation of the Fracker's Mr. and Mrs. Fiorentino; the warm work's timeliness. I was very much impressed voiced and sweet Jennie of Melissa Thorburn; that. after 50 years, Kaiser's "winter's tale" of and the skilled and very funny dance couple, an uneasy union of good (the friends Olim, Wysandria Woolsey and Gregg Ganakas. Severin. and Fennimore) pitted against evil (the greedy von Luber and Laur) remains a VALORIE GOODALL vivid theatrical experience. Certainly the Mason Gross School ofthe Arts theme has much to say to us now. The treatment of Weill's music, however, Rutgers University proved much more problematic! The Gera pro duction used Weill's original orchestration. with 35 players from the opera house orchestra and a large chorus. The actors, unaccustomed to singing with such formidable accompaniment. were unable to project their voices, so that the audience couldn't hear a single word of the lyr Olim and Severin's hospital duet from ics. ln Karl-Marx-Stadt, the orchestra was re- Der Silbersee, Karl-Marx-Stadt, 1985.
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 14 PERFORMANCES
in the good old days, despite the persistent to view, not so much the present (as we always echoes of Brecht's footsteps all over town - thought), as the past- Germany's past above has much catching up to do with Weill's Berlin all - in a new way. repertory, and the adventurousness in this area Sellar's productions of eighteenth-century of such Band-Aid and paste companies as Ma opera - Handel especially - work in some ko ·s at least puts the city's major producers to what the same way. Alas. I missed his Giulio The Threepenny Opera shame. Cesare earlier in the festival, but I have seen his Orlandc. That production was faithful to the East-West Players. Los Angeles, ALAN RICH eighteenth-century, musically speaking. Its California. 22 May through 7 July losA1tcgeles stage was a contemporary fantasy which com 1985. pletely overturned our sense of time and Jn the curiously endearing cultural mix movement (elapsed, stage, historical, stylistic, known as Los Angeles, few theatrical ventures or otherwise). Every number of Orlando is a are more curious - or more endearing - than space-shuttle shimmy. How logical for its char a small theatrical venture in the Silverlake area, acters to ride a baroque rocket to the moon. close to downtown, known as the East-W!st "Little Mahagonny" and Together, "Little Mahagonny" and "Conver Players. Its personnel stems, as the name sug sations" teU a story much like that of OrlamuJ. gests, from a variety of origins. Specifically,. in "Conversations With Fear Sellars' Orlando took place in the same physi every show I've seen there, the casts have m and Hope After Death" cal state as Mahagonny - a mythical Florida. clutled players of pure Asian appearance as weU We go, via one cataclysm or another, from t_he Pepsico Summerfare Festival, steamy jungles and hurricanes of human des1re as pure-American six-foot blonds. Its founder Purchase, NY. 24-28July 1985. and director is the actor Mako, best known for to the bare rocks of the moonscape of the soul. With a shimmy or two along the way. his role as the Narrator in the original Broad Peter Sellars' view of Mahagomzy is that it way run of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Over Sellars' (and conductor Craig Smith's) "Lit depicts sinful man in need of redemption. This tle Mahagonny" is the authentic 1927 Maha tures, but also known in Movieland for kung fu is not far-fetched. \\eill called it a ''morality movies and similar delights. gonny Songspiei. It takes place, not in the tale" and likened it to Sodom and Gomorrah. original boxing ring (Brecht was not shy about East-West works in a !heater about the size Brecht's Hm~postille, where the Mahagonny communicating his idea of conflict in modern of this page, but cleverly used. In a creditable poems first appeared, was put together in the Happy End I saw there in 1981, there was _a society) but on a kind of life-raft. The entire manner of a Lutheran chapbook, a sort of fam piece is played on this raft - a simple square sense from the direction that everybody, audi ily-style handbook of meditations for daily use. platform decorated with a table and four chairs ence and players alike, was sitting around Bill's Mahagonny, in all its fonns, is a kind of Pil Bar. Then, as in the recently closed that look as though they might have been sal grim's Progress, upside-down. vaged from the third-class bar of a derelict Threepenny, the orchestral forces were mini Brecht's idea was to send the public out of mal, something you noticed for about the first ocean liner or tramp steamer. The platform, the theater upset and presumably ready for re pushed by two stage bands, moves only to- three minutes. deeming, collective action. The Bach Cantata wards and away from us across a deep bare The work survived, and then some. The movements assembled by Peter SeUars and stage. This wave-like motion only reinforces small band worked offstage behind a scrim; the Craig Smith - under the name "Conversations action moved smoothly on a brilliantly assem the image of a life-raft on a boundless sea. The With Fear and Hope" and designed as a sequel city of Mahagonny is just a plank surrounded by bled two-level stage. There was no chorus; the and companion piece to this production of the a vast emptiness. It can only bob up and down, principals merely moved together and sang suggests a much more Malzagonny Sangspiel - back and forth, and it never gets anywhere at loudly whenever mighty forces were needed. personal idea of redemption. all. Whatever its lack in performing forces, Mako's \\buld Brecht have approved? Probably not, production at least always captured the daz but 1s uspect We ill might have. Brecht loved to Craig Smith, Sellars' long-time music direc zling vitalizy in the work. Some changes were invent the particular so he could generalize tor, describes the first \\eill/Brecht coUabora made in proper directions; some in other direc from it. W!ill started from a generalized and tion as the most perfect of them all. It is tions. PoUy got her "Pirate Jenny" back after a common language and ended up with the par certainly the only one whose form is entirely generation of usurping Jennys; the score was ti{,-ular and the personal. This contradiction, not generated by the music. Ironically, it is also the given complete, all verses, in the Marc Blitz at first obvious in the Mahagonny Song~-pie/, one whose musical tone now seems to us the stein translation with a very few localisms was a source of creative conflict for the part most Brechtian. (Perhaps this is the reason patched in, A more curious twist was to give nership but eventually fueled their breakup. why the music could be allowed to generate the the "Moritat" to a woman, a gamine at that, Peter Sellars strikes right to the heart of the form.) It is a brisk, cutting, modern-music can and all the worse for that. contradiction and in the most extraordinary tata, the most "objectified" and least personal But the PoUy - a twenties-looking blonde manner. The issues of personal redemption are of ~ill's works. The male quartet is identified with bee-stung lips and a wicked lure in her expressed through an objective, representa as Charlie, Billy, Bobby, and Jimmy, but they walk, name of JaneUen Steininger - couldn't tional style of production. More contradictions, always seem to sing in their quartet persona. have been better, nor could the swaggering, more dialectics! The women, identified in the cast list as two sonorous Ernest Harada, the Peachurn. Keone Every once in a while someone tries to find a soubrettes, Jessie and Bessie, are little more Young's Macheath, alas, was sung with great way to put Bach on the stage, Bach, the great personalized, but not much. The duet form of fervor but cut no kind of dash. Shizoku Hoshi, est baroque composer never to write for the "Moon of Alabama" is truly heart-breaking tl1e Jenny, had obviously learned all the great theater, was, of course, influenced by the op even as it leers incomprehensibly. The two Lenya poses in the old Pabst movie, but lacked era. But his dramatic scenes are so personal pieces originally written in peculiar broken the vocal thrust to make the imitation work. and internalized that stage actions and scenic English (by Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's Now it's time to consider legislation requir pictures of any kind always seem imposed and girlfriend and associate) have the most emo ing there being al least one performance of superfluous. But not in this production. For tion-laden settings! Threepenny in every city over a given size at all Sellars, Mahagonny is a scenic cantata. T_he re It is the sense of objectification and distance times. Certainly Los Angeles - despite the ally active physical movement comes m the in the music which was most modified by \\eill residence here of the gracious Margot Au Bachl To get at Bach through Brecht-W!ill is in the later, operatic treatment of the Maha fricht. widow of the work's first producer, and not just a director's trick. SeUars has discov gonny material. Brecht blamed the large or of many other old-time Berliners close to WeiU ered that Mahagmmy is a glass that enables us chestration but. in fact, it is inherent in Weill 's
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 15 PERFORMANCES
reworking and expansion of the music in every domain. Only the Songspi.el could remind us of a Bach cantata and it took a Peter SeUars to point out the connection. "Conversations With Fear and Hope" begins exactly at the point that the Malzaganny ends. There is a murder. The apparently limitless possibilities of the boundless sea, of the brave New W>rld ofMahagonny, are cut short by bit terness, discord, fear, sin, oblivion. The raft has come to rest; it will move again only once and briefly. What could be perceived as a boundless surround of emptiness is now seen as a road. Telephone poles (or are they crosses?) and wires are strung through the theater, across the stage, and, in an indefinite perspective (the image of deep perspective is important in both productions) stretch to the waU and beyond. (The telephone poles and the road were there all along - when God came to Mahagonny, He was a highway patrolman - but for this reviewer the importance of these motives did not register until the Bach portion of the evening.) Jessie and Bessie are the mourners, the two Marys; the murdered man is Jesus. The others are accomplices in his death or perhaps onlookers who are, nonethe A scene from Peter Sellars' staging of Mahaganny Songspiel at the Pep less, also implicated. sico Summerfare Festival, Purchase, N.Y. The original idea was to use Cantata No. 60 as the musical text, and movements from this Photo by Peter Krupenye. work, with its famous chorale, "Es ist genug:' still provide the basic outline. Numbers frorh Happy End. The Wtlrna Theater, boiled Bill Cracker gradually lost his resolve, other cantatas, more appropriate to the dra making the "happy end" seem that much more matic and emotional ideas of the piece, have Philadelphia, PA. 5 June through 20 arbitrary. This was a production that didn't been substituted or interpolated. July 1985. know where its heart was: a reverent attitude The musical movement of the cantata has is not required in producing a script of this sort, been "staged" - always within the framework but it is reasonable for an audience to expect of the dramatic Affekt. Sellars adds nothing to The Wilma Theater, a storefront noted for its stylistic consistency and dramatic coherence. the music, nor does he attempt to "interpret" innovative productions oforiginal scripts and its Considerations of economy, space, and bal it - only to physicalize the intensely personal ''Brechtian style," this swnmer turned to one ance compelled the Wilma to employ a solo pi and largely internal conflicts by presenting a of the most problematic works in the ~ ano accompaniment for the show (a grant from stage picture that is, in some sense, parallel or Brecht/Hauptmann canon: Happy End. Mi the Kurt Weill Foundation would have subsi analogous to the music. There are really only chael Feingold's English adaptation, is a staple dized the authentic seven-man orchestra. but two external features, but they are important of regional American theaters, but it is a shaky the theater declined the grant due to lack of ones. The stage pictures, the physical move affair whose tone veers wilcDy from low com additional funding). Although the singers could ment and action, are made by the same people edy to whisky romance to radical soapbox ora have been drowned out in the small auditorium, who are singing the music; this is choreography tory as it attempts to entertain us, with varying it is a pity to lose the color and bite of '&ill's for singers. The other feature is a constant degrees of success, until the next musical num splendid original orchestrations. Schaffer, a awareness of the threads that connect this in ber comes along. sometime rock singer, sang the "Sailor's ternal journey with our earlier ride on the Ma The Wtlma's production was unable to re Tango" an octave lower than the score indi hagonny life-raft. solve these contradictions. The portentous cates, in a chest tone that was powerful but This extraordinary double bill originated in tone and pacing of much of the production, as sounded terribly Jabored; she sang "Surabaya Cambridge, Mass., a few years ago and is still weU as the earnest efforts of Melissa Schaffer Johnny" in the correct register with the excep in the process ofaccomplishing its own journey. as Sister Lillian, led one to believe that director tion of the climactic high passa_ges in each The next stop for this production - it should Jiri Zizka intended us to take the play seriously. verse, leading one to believe that musical di properly be referred to in the singular - will be Nevertheless, there were repeated intrusions rector Rick Stoppleworth failed to comprehend the Kennedy Center where SeUars now heads which caused one to doubt the consistency of the important connection between melodic the American National Theatre project. That Zizka's approach. The pitiable poor who gath contour and emotional intensity in Weill's vocal so extraordinary and difficult a conception will ered at the Salvation Army were portrayed as writing. Bornstein, in his first singing role, ever find a definitive form may be questioned, grotesque caricatures in rubber Halloween played The Fly with a neurotic quality reminis but in whatever stage of evolution it appears, it masks. A sneering master of ceremonies (ably cent of Blanche du Bois and delivered "The played by Al Bornstein) was added to introduce will astonish and stimulate. Lily of HeU" with halting introspection instead and comment on the action; when the same ac of the fiery intensity clearly intended by the ERIC SALZMAN tor portrayed The Lady in Grey, one wondered composer. Throughout the production, the New llirk if the director wasn't trying too hard to inject a performers wrestled with Feingold's nearly un note of ~imar decadence. Marica L. Fergu singable translation, and the rapid passages son played Major Stone as a barely-repressed (e.g. "Song of the Big Shot:' "Bilbao Song") nymphomaniac, getting tremendous laughs but seemed tembly awkward when not unintelligi sacrificing the integrity of her character. Tom ble. It is clear that a more experienced hand Teti got off to a promising start but his hard- was needed in preparing the musical aspects of
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 16 PERFORMANCES TELEVISION
this production. cast took precedence over the concert, so far Happy End. ')\merica's Musical It is worth noting the positive audience re as the technical staff was concerned. sponse to Happy End, a production which was It is hard to say if the slow tempi were only Theater" on "Great Performances," not without its pleasant moments. The show possible by this cast of uniformly fine singers, Public Broadcasting System. Arr-date w<1s weU-received by the popular press, and or if the singers profited more from slow (i.e. the run was extended by several months. correct) tempi: the melodies came into power to be announced. Brecht and Weill have not fared terribly well in and proved that Weill knew how to write bril Philadelphia; still fairly fresh in our memory is liant vocal music. Wolfgang Neuman did not The delightful confusion caUed Happy End, in the Pennsylvania Opera Theater's production seem much like a lumberjack (especially garbed an energetic yet uneven production by the of The Threepenny Opera, notable for the e.xcel as he was in a regulation concert-opera tux Arena Stage of Washington, D.C., is being pre lence of its singing and the muddled thinking of edo), but among the many Jimmy Mahoneys I sented by P.B.S. in the near future (as of press its dramatic concept (the action was set in a have seen and heard, he made the strongest time, broadcast was slated for spring, 1986- subway tunnel under the city of Philadelphia). vocal impression on me. He was truly superb, having been delayed since fall, 1984) , WGBH, The Wtlrna Theater's Haptry End does not goof in command of the character's development the network's Boston affiliate, is the television on such a grand scale, but for an audience famil and sustaining long tones without effort or producer for the program- "with additional iar with the true emotional and theatrical im change of color - even the high C in his third funding by Millcy Way and M&M/Mars" (heav pact of W!ill and Brecht, this production was a act aria which, in the best of cases, r have only ens to Brecht!)-and Martha Schlamrne acts as bit of a disappointment. heard ye.lied. Neuman sang his aria without hostess, reading notes prepared by the play's pressing, but his desperation and fear of death translator. Michael Feingold. The difficulties of CHARLES GILBERT, JR. filming a live musical production in the round University ofDelaware were all the more palpable because he didn't employ any Caruso-style sobbing (that is Puc and in stage lighting have been overcome with Aufstieg nnd Fall der cini's domain); this music had the great Mahler relative aplomb, but the stage director, Garland Stadt Mahagonny. Radio ian Gestus. Equally impressive was the function Wright, has offered us only a partially success of Jimmy's aria as part of the dramatic whole: ful vision of seamy Chicago lowlife and Salva Orchestra of the West Deutsche flowing into the powerful trial scene and a Fi tion Army lassies battling each other, Cupid, Rund.funk. Rheinisches Musikfest, nale like a funeral march - no, a death march. and Saints Ford and Rockefeller. Credit must be given Musical Director and Duisburg, 4 June 1985. Ruhrfestspiel, Even the girls in the reprise of the Alabama Song sent cold chills up and down the spine. Conductor Robert Fisher for a weU-honed mu Recklinghausen, 5 June 1985. And then, more broadly in tempo but without sical performance, although one suspects that ritardando, the threatening message to the au many dynamic and textural delicacies were lost The West German Radio Orchestra's con dience: "Konnen uns und euch und niernand in the transference to video tape. Listeners fa cert performances of Aufslieg und Fall der helfen." The effect was to render'this message miliar with the soulful pit band sound of the Stadt Mahagonny (a studio production will be undeniable: there is no help for this man or this 1\veoties, however, will miss the fast vibrato broadcast this winter) were, hardly surpris world. and stylish phrasing so appropriate to Weill's ingly, a tremendous success with audiences. It is difficult to resist piling on the superla music, and so lacking in the young crackerjack Conductor Jan Latham-Konig's interpretation tives in describing how Anja Silja, as Jenny, be musicians of today, One wonders when the his threw the work into a surprising new light; he gan this apocalyptic finale. In "Denn wie man torical authenticity movement in our conserva opened many of the "standard" cuts (but omit sich bettet." I was forced to abandon my earlier tories will catch up to the 1920s. ting the "Crane Duet'') and, for once, took the conceptions of this song and of the entire op The singer/actors have their highs and lows. tempi as slowly as the composer prescribed era. I heard freshly something I had thought The lows I would attribute more to directorial them. l did not time the performance, but I es too familiar to sustain new meanings. The song decisions than to the performers themselves. timate it to have been 20% longer than the av has always seemed to me a gratuitous insert, a Among the principals, Marilyn Caskey as Sis erage Mahagonny - and that 20% made a reiteration of the Havana Song as Jenny tries to ter Lillian Holiday succeeds vocally but is ham 200% difference. Musical and textual details get out of another unpleasant situation. Silja strung by stage actions such as pouring dirty could be savored instead of rushed over merci started off with an accentuated "Meine Her water (the sea?) from a pail during the 'rut, the lessly, No superficial "spice," no artificial good ren!" in such a way that for a moment I thought sea is blue, so blue" section of "Sailor's humor, no souped-up swing interfered with the she had missed the style and was attempting to Thngo." Singing the entire "Surabaya Johnny" ironic undercurrent of sorrow which so marks deliver a highly dramatic aria. But in her maes atop a revolving stool works better, as she radi this work; the brittleness of this world of plea toso interpretation the song became more than ates a cool intensity that entraps both Bill sure was manifest. But the music did not drag: an aria; the little whore grew into a goddess of Cracker and the audience. By the way, it's nice it triumphed. Given their full due, the far vengeance, a mythic Stone Guest. Compared to see the sexual angle of the relationship be reaching melodies had more voltage and carry to such a mighty, dangerous figure, Begbick tween Lillian and Bill played up more than ing power, haunting and not tickling the ears. looked like a small-time hustler. Silja's Jenny usual, though at times it seems a bit much. Most importantly, Mahagom1y was offered as a was neither a vamp nor a waif: her self-assur Casey Biggs (Bill Cracker) leads a gang of complete work, and one to be taken seriously, ance was deadly. actors with good comic timing and individualis not as a series of hit songs with dry bits in be The concert staging was negligible. Adolf tic performances (watch for the hilarious re tween. Dresen, the stage director, contributed a few pentence speech of Michael Genet as the The Radio Orchestra (rather than the Sym slide projections on a ridiculous screen. This Reverend), but who are often loud. "Bilbao phony Orchestra) provided exactly the right was superfluous, because tbe soloists were so Song" peaks much too early and becomes al ensemble: the musicians are as familiar with familiar with tl)eir parts that they were able to most a vaudevillian circus rather than a remi the classics as they are with pop music. Thus express the situations with mere gestures. Th niscence. The one stunning exception occurs in the loftier passages paid their debts to Bach or be sure, the dialogue could have been better the second verse of "Mandetay Song;• where Hindemith, and the solo violin knew how to delivered. Dresen's chief success, however, Sam, portrayed by Joe Palmieri, leads a hushed sigh, too. The brass had no difficulties with the was that the soloists overcame the limitations gang lamenting poor Mother Goddam's syncopations and the jazz instruments were .in of their evening dress, rendering sharper char Whorehouse, now underneath the bay. I got tegrated into the orchestra in the most natural acterizations than one meets in most fully cos goosebumps. way. The banjo was an exception, being over tumed productions. The Salvation Army lackeys are led vocally amplified; amplification created other problems by Michael Cone. With his fine tenor, Mr. Cone in that the chorus was too soft and one soloist JOSEF HEINZELMANN gives a strong performance as Brother Hanni overmiked - it was clear that the radio broad- Mainz bal Jackson, shaming himself in his pants under
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 17 I TELEVISION BOOKS
the gun of The Governor (Richard Bauer) in bocker Holiday;" "Weill in Wartime;'' ''.Ameri "The Liquor Dealer's Dream." Here, at the can Opera;" and "Conclusion:' end of Act TI. Mr. Bauer also shines as he ter As this structure shows, the authors aim to rorizes the Mission and joins in on his favorite present a ''standard" biographical description song. i\1ichelle Howard (Sister Jane) sings of Weill rather than a new outlook with a critical beautifully in "Don't Be Afraid," while Li7.abeth basis: the book is descriptive rather than inter Pritchett, Susan Blommaert, and Franchelle pretative. Therefore, it doesn't go beyond the Stewart Dom as The Major, Sister Mary, and works of Ronald Sanders or Gottfried Wagner. the barmaid Miriam turned Sister Miriam, offer The importance of the book in fact lies not in its fine characterizations. Ms. Blommaert must scholarly value but in its stylistic simplicity, have sucked lemons for weeks for her por chosen by the authors for Weill's "debut" in the trayal of the prudish, priggish Sister Mary. Japanese book market. Their plain style en Special mention to Charles Janasz for his sad ables unfamiliar readers in Japan to approach dog Brother Ben Owens. easily the essence of Kurt Weill's oeuvre: the Act m. with its corny but irresisbble "happy ambiguities between elite and popular culture, end:' is highlighted by the aforementioned between German and American music, be '' Mandelay Song" and "Surabaya Johnny." On tween art and entertainment. the opposite side of the ledger, Bill's reprise of Any biographer of Weill must confront the "Song of the Big Shot" is unconvincing, as is problems of the continuity and discontinuity of The Fly's Ouditb Anna Robert's) "Ballad of the his musical works, from the avant-garde com Lily of Hell," where Ms. Roberts gets caught in positions in the Twenties to the popular musi a vocal no-woman's land. This is a notoriously cals of the Forties. For our authors, ~ill's difficult singing assignment, however, and I religious consciousness displayed both in his have yet to hear an actress give a persuasive earlier works (e.g. the "Chorale" in the Sym performance of this song. phony No. 1) and in his later works (e.g. The On the whole, the broadcast starts off Eternal Roa([J is central to the continuity of slowly, builds up steam in the comic sections of Weill's output. His interest in religion, linked Busoni the Composer. Act II, and eventually succeeds in engaging the with his consciousness of his Jewish origins, Antony Beaumont. Bloomington: viewer-and listener- by the Finale. One only distinguishes him from his German and Ameri lndiana University Press, 1985. 408 hopes that the viewing audience, especially can colleagues such as Brecht, Eisler, Ander pp. $32.50 those who are enjoying their first exposure to son, or Rice. Thus, rather than being political ~ill (how many hundreds of thousands!!), will manifestos or pure entertainment, Weill's "Ferruccio Busoni has been called the last stay tuned and be turned on by \\eill's wonder works focus on humanity itself and the question Renaissance man. This description comes clos ful score. of its role in contemporary society. est to his nature. When Busoni died a year ago, The Afterword which follows this rather ob we did not lose a man but a standard,'' ~ GARY S. FAGIN jective, if not neutral, biographical text offers wrote in 1925, going on to compare Busoni to New York us a sort of ''confession" from Tatsuji Iwa Leonardo and describing not merely a revered buchi, who is also the translator of many of teacher or a great composer but a phenome Weill's songs (from Die Dreigroschenoper, non, a superman. For those who know Busoni Happy End, etc.) and the author of several only superficially and have been perplexed by BOOKS books and articles on Brecht, his predeces his reputation, Beaumont's study closes a con sors, contemporaries, and successors (Buch spicuous gap, while those conversant with Bu ner, ~dekind, and Durenmatt, to cite a few soni wiU find in it a number of surprises, great Kurt Weill: Brecht Engeki among many). According to Iwabuchi, the and small. For instance, we discover the iden Kara Broadway Musical American Weill is less interesting than the Ger tity of Madeline M., the American 1,>irl who man one because of the tediousness of the li called for the Sonatina ad usum in/antis, a pho Made brettos Weill worked with on Broadway and in to1,'Taph of whom is included among the book's ("Kurt Weill: From Brechtian Theater Hollywood, as contrasted with the solidness of 43 plates; we learn that the Sonatina seconda to Broadway Musical") Brecht's texts. He especially complains of a originally concluded with a brilliant "al sugar-coated sentimentality which he finds in salt:areUo" (!); and, most importantly, we find By Tatsuji Iwabuchi and Erina that Busoni-contrary to aU previous ac Hanasaki. Tokyo: Arina Shobo, 1985. Weill's musicals. Despite this negative attitude towards "the counts- left sketches for the unfinished final American Weill," the book in fact deals with his scene of Dokt01· Faust, which Beaumont has This is the first book on Kurt ~ill by Japa contributions to the American theater in the utilized in his own completion of the opera. nese authors. Owing to the revival of interest Thirties and Forties, a topic which has been ''Because Busoni is not yet well known as a in the culture of the 1920s, his name has be completely ignored in Japan. This "discovery" composer," Beaumont writes. "it seemed es come well-known here, not only in Brechtian ofthenon-Brechtian Weill - at least in Japan - sential to provide a basic introduction to his ma circles but also among music lovers especially. will certainly raise questions about the broader ture works ... A complete List of Busoni's works But is was not until this biography that the frag context of transatlantic cultural intercourse in is also included: of the 314 pieces catalogued, I mentary images and scattered anecdotes of the second quarter of our century. have discussed only the last ss:· This may Kurt ~ were consistently integrated in a We can hope that the second collaboration of seem to give short shrift to "Busoni the com systematic, but none too scholarly, manner. the authors, a book on Eisler which is an poser:• though, in fact, it is the only wise The volume is divided into 16 chapters: "'Sep nounced in the Afterword, will enlarge the view choice: a companion to the present volume tember Song' and 'Morit:at':" "Busoni's Mas of the "alternative" development in modern which Beaumont has suggested he may write, terclass;" "~ill and His T!Il1es;" "The Way to music and discern clearly the distinctions be dealing with the juvenilia, transcriptions, and Musiktheater," "Encounter with Brecht;" tween these two composers, who lived so dif cadenzas, might well be called "Busoni the As "Die Dreigroschen()jJer;" "Happy End;" "The ferently in the same world. similator:• Accordingly, Beaumont begins with New Opera Mahagonny;" "Lehrstuck;" "Ger theKonzertstuck for piano and orchestra-win many: A Wmter's Tale;" "The Paris Period;'' SHUHEI HOSOKAWA ner of the Rubinstein Prize in 1890- and such "The Way to the Promised Land;" "Knicker- Tokyo things as the Violin Concerto, the Second Violin
KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 18 BOOKS
Sonata, and the Piano Concerto, which reveal Macheath asks "Do you think the people here Busoni's technical grasp turning to mastery as pay eight Mark~ in order to ~ee the truth?,!hey his strong attractive features begin to emerge pay their money for not seemg the truth. 1:he from the overlay of tradition. The bulk of the actor playing Peachum agrees. The ending book, is given to the comprehensive examina should be "satisfying," he insists. and the pro tion of the works of Busoni's last two dec po«t> KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 19 RECORDINGS the show. here rendered by solo and ensem The song is also missing both its verse and "LOVE LIFE" ON DISC ble) is similarly well-phrased and manages a interlude. The other major collection of recorded ma There e.xists no recording of Love Life, Alan properly subtle edge, yet it too is shortened. Jay Lerner and Kurt Weill's extravagant ex The quartet goes it alone in an edited version terial from Love Life can be found in Ben Bag ley's "Revisited" series, spread over three periment in curdled Americana. Nor are there of "Economics," the vocal arrangement re albums: ALAN JAY LERNER REVISITED any tantalizing glimpses of the original (and taining much of Weill's witty original but the only) production available through recordings jazzy musical accompaniment (although [Painted Smiles PS 13371, and KURT WEILL REVISITED Vol. [PS 13751 and Vol. [PS made by its stars (Nanette Fabray and Ray expert and enjoyable in its own right) is a far I U 1376). The Lerner album was recorded over Middleton). A victim of the 1948 ASCAP cry from Weill. ten years before the Weill albums, yet they strike, Love Life exists only in the memory of The four other songs go to Kaye Ballard. share a consistency of tone. That tone, unfor those who were there, at the Forty-Sixth She is delightful in a snazzy rendition of tunately, veers dangerously close to camp all Street Theatre, sometime between October "Green-Up Time," in which she manages to too often. In his liner notes, Bagley claims to 1948 and June 1949. downplay the "cuteness" of the song. Still, "have recorded practically every song from Nonetheless, a determined musical theater we hear only one chorus of the lyric and the this wonderful show." Though his enthusiasm buff can get some sense of the show by as original verse is replaced by a much shorter is admirable, his claim is exaggerated. He has, sembling the various recordings made consid and completely different one, obviously writ however, recorded eight songs from the fin erably after the fact. These recordings ten with sheet music in mind. The attractive frequently play fast and loose with tempi and simplicity of her "Mr. Right" is, unfortu ished show, two that were cut out-of-town, and one which never even made it into re interpretation, consistently ignore Weill's nately, severely damaged by the decision to hearsal, for a total of 11. original orchestrations, and often truncate jettison nearly the entire second half of the material. But they are better than nothing. song. which moves into an almost manic The Lerner album contains the best-known The best collection in terms of quality is to swing tempo and is one of the best examples material. The versions of" Progress" (featur be found on an album entitled LYRICS BY anywhere of music conunenting on character. ing Nancy Walker and Roddy McDowall with LERNER [DRG MRS-903, reviewed in the Without this contrast, Ballard's simplicity is chorus) and "Economics" (Dorothy Loudon last issue of the Newsletter), recorded in the left to twist slowly in the wind. and chorus) are at least more complete (one early fifties and featuring Lerner performing Ballard's versions of "Susan's Dream" and stanza is still missing from "Economics'') than his own songs, assisted by Kaye Ballard and a "Here I'll Stay" are the least successful cuts the ones offered on LYRICS BY LERNER. male quartet, and accompanied by Billy Taylor on the album. Both seem to be attempts at But Norman Paris' orchestrations sound fren and a jazz ensemble consisting of piano, bass, providing her with another "Lazy After zied and fussy, and the performers respond guitar, and percussion. While these are jazz noon"-aiming for dreamy, but settling for accordingly. More successful are Jerry Or interpretations, they rarely violate the integ dreary. In the case of "Susan's Dream" (cut bach's renditions of "Love Song" (again in rity of the songs. Half of the album's 14 offer from the show and sung originally by a male complete) and "This fs the Life" (which ings come from Love Life, and the most quartet), the repetitiveness of the vocal line Lerner and \½ill wrote in rehearsal as an satisfying cuts are Lerner's. His phrasing of suggests the need for harmonizing voices to "aria" expressly for Ray Middleton.) Or "Love Song," for example, is particularly keep things interesting. (The problem is more bach's interpretations never progress beyond moving, but even so, he does not sing the pe than just slowness, as Martha Schlamme's up the competently straightforward and the or nultimate interlude and final chorus of the tempo, soprano version [MGM E 4052P] also chestrations lack \l;eill 's astringency and intel song, and the verse is a shortened version of fails to hold together.) "Here l'll Stay" is sim ligence. Still. better dull than distorted. the one that appears in Weill's score. His ver ply a miscalculation, as the torchy approach sion of "Progress" (an ensemble number in drains a robustly romantic song of its power. The best thing on the album, though, is Dorothy Loudon's ·'Mr. Right," described by Bagley as ''Betty Hutton-ish." Loudon's in terpretation is too broad to work in the show, but it beautifully highlights the satire in the song and is delivered with energy and style. lt is also complete! The WEILL REVISITEDs are just as spotty. Most successful are the cuts with Jo Sullivan and John Reardon. Sullivan is charming on "What More Do I Want?". a swirling waltz that was dropped for the show while it was being written (and more than likely replaced by either "Here I'll Stay" or "I Remember It Well"). Her duet with Reardon on "l Remember It Well" is a bit too heavy and sentimental, but the loveliness of the melody is well served. And it is fascinating to hear the germ of an idea that didn't really bear fruit dramatically until Lerner re-used it in Gigi (with a different lyric and a new melody by Loewe). Reardon is also fea tured in "The Locker Room:• a long sequence blending music and dialogue, presented here in a considerably edited and consequently confus ing version, and his booming voice is well suited to the hyper-masculine music. Less apt is the light baritone of Arthur Siegel in the part "Punch and Judy Get a Divorce:' ballet sequence from the first (and only) produc of the basso profundo masseur. Finally, in an at tion of Weill and Lem er's Love Life (1948). (Scenery by Boris Aronson, Choreog tempt to create some sense of continuity, raphy by Michael Kidd) someone has been fit to write four uncredited KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 20 RECORDINGS \ NEW PUBLICATIONS lines of lyric, which give themselves away glar ARTICLES ingly by attempting to rhyme "gore" and "masseur,'' a highly unlikely transgression for someone with Lemer's command or craft. Fischetti, Renate. ''.A Feminist Reading of Brecht's Pirate Jenny:' Communications 14 (April 1985), pp. 29-33. Siegel uses his voice to better advantage in a shortened "My Kind of Night," communi Kowalke, Kim H. ''.A Tale of Seven Cities: A Chronicle of the Sins." On the Next Wave (October cating the charm of this easygoing paean to 1985), pp. 20-25. misguided contentment. However, shorn of its companion piece, "Woman's Club Blues," Schebera, Jurgen. "Kurt ~ill und Dessau." Dessauer Ka/ender, 1985, pp. 20-27. it loses much of its irony. Chila Rivera whispers her way through Schebera, Jurgen. "\bm ~rt der Groschen." notate 4 Ouly 1985), pp. 6-7. "You Understand Me So," another song cut out-of-town. This deliberately insincere love song, originally sung separately by Fabray and BOOKS Middleton (to the objects of their respective adulterous attentions), seems rather bland Beaumont, Antony. Busoni the Composer. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1985. when presented without its subtext. Ann Miller bulldozes her way through half of "Is It Betz, Albrecht. Hanns Eisler: Political Musician. Translated by Bill Hopkins. Cambridge: Hirn, Or Is It Me?" Bagley showed good Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982. sense in choosing this version, which is con siderably better than the out-of-town rewrite, Dahlhaus, Carl. Vom Musikdrama zur literaturoper: Aufeiitze zur neueren Operngeschicht. though why he lopped off the second half (con Miinchen: Musikverlag Emil Katzbichler, 1983. taining crucial character development) is a mystery. Hecht, Werner. Brecht: Vielseitige Betrachtungen: Durchgesehene und erganzte Ausgabe. The Off-Broadway cast album of BERLIN Berlin: Henschelverlag, 1984. TO BROADWAY WITH KURT WEILL [Par amount Records PAS 4000) offers truncated Hecht, Werner, ed. Brecht's "DreigroschenojJer". Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985. In versions of "Progress" and "Love Song." cludes "Die Musilc Kurt ~ills" by Fritz Hennenberg. The former is reasonably well performed and features a musical arrangement far closer to lwabuch.i, Thtsuji, and Erina Hanasaki. Kurt Weill: Brecht Engeki Kara Broadway Musical Weill's than other versions. The latter is mis Made ("Kurt Weill: From Brechtian Tbeater to Broadway Musical"). Tokyo: Arina Shobo, takenly made to serve as a sort of mini-finale 1985. ultimo for the entire cast. There are undoubtedly numerous instances Tracy, Robert. Balanchine's Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses. New York: Linden of the two hit songs, ''Here I'll Stay" and Press/Simon & Schuster, 1983. "Green-Up Time," showing up on various pop albums. Felicia Sanders recorded an al SCORES bum of Weill songs [Time 52007] that included them both and must be heard to be believed. Hindemith, Paul. Stimiliche Werke, ed. K. V. Fischer and L. Finscher, Band 1,6: Szenische Suffice it to say that the album is a genuine Versuche, ed. R. Stephan. Mainz: B. Schotts Sohne, 1982. Includes Der lindherghflug (1929) historical artifact of the early Sixties. The best Horspiel von Bertolt Brecht. Musik von Paul Hindemith und Kurt ~ill. available recording of "Green-Up Time" is on THE LOTTE LENYA ALBUM [Columbia Weill-Frenkel. Sieben Stucke nach der Dreigroschenoper. Vienna: Universal-Edition 9969, 1930. Masterworks M6 30087). Although the musi Reprinted 1985. For violin and piano. "Erleichtert Ausgabe": Universal Edition 9969B. cal arrangements and choral support border on the cloying, Lenya's singing is buoyant DISSERTATIONS even when her accent seems distinctly out of place. The sheet music verse is here used somewhat less intrusively as an interlude be Cook, Susan. • Opera During the Weimar Republic: The Zeitopern of Ernst Krenek, Kurt ~ill, tween choruses. Unfortunately, we are still and Paul Hindemith:' Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1985. limited to one chorus of the lyric and we are denied hearing the original verse. Gresham, Jon. ''.Aspects of Style in Five W>rks for Wmds by Kurt Weill." DMA thesis, Cincin Of course, even if one assembled the best natti-College Conservatory of Music. ( in progress ] versions of the available material in the proper order, one would not have anything resem RECORDINGS bling a definitive or complete recording. Much remains unrecorded, including the extended Brecht/D 'Andrea Konzert. Nicole and Oswald D' Andrea, 2 pianos. (Les Uns par les Autres opening sequence and the ambitious Minstrel MNO 12061) Show Finale (a good 20 minutes long). But one can begin to get a sense of the incredible September Song and Other American Theatre Songs ofKurt Weill. Lotte Lenya. (CBS MMP variety of styles used by Weill as well as a 39513) Reissued in Europe, remastered. sense of the function of the split-level score (book song followed by comment song). Until Threepenny Opera. Original cast album, Theatre de Lys. (Polydor 422-820 260-1) Reissue. a visionary entrepreneur underwrites a studio recording or Liz Robertson decides she wants Willem Breuker Collective. Willem Breuker Kollektief. (About Time). 1.ncludes jazz arrange to star in a revival, we'll just have to make do. ments of Happy End songs. ERIK HAAGENSEN New Thrk KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 21 PERFORMANCES AUSTRIA June, 1985 Die Dreigroschenoper, Kassel. Staatstheater, Heinz Kreidl, dir., Berliner Requiem, Vienna, Brahms-Saal, Musikverein, Ensemble June, 1985 Kontrapunkt, Beginning March 3, 1986 Die Dreigtoschenoper, Frankfurt, Schauspiel Frankfurt, I. Was Di~ Dreigroschenoper, Linz, Landestheater, Beginning Nov. 16, zerkas, dir.; Perfs. 1, 6, 11 July, 1985 1985 Die Dreigroschenoper, Emden, Landesbiihne Wilmershaven, Oct.22, 1985 DENMARK Happy End,Oberhausen, Theater Oberhausen, May 30-31. June Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Copenhagen, Royal Danish Guards, 1, 8, 11-12, 14-16 Aug. 13, 1985 Der Jasager. Altona (near Hamburg), Paulus-Kirche, June, 1985 Kiddush, Frankfurt, Hochschulefor Musik, MusicaJudaica, Linda ENGLAND Horowitz, dir., June 1985 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Starns, Collegium St. Fideli, Dominik "Barbara Song," Bath Festival, John Harle's Berliner Band.,June Wyss, May 3, 4 1985 3. 1985 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Saarbriicken, Musikhochschule, Stu Berliner Requiem, London, Royal Albert Hall, London Sinfo dents, July 4, 1985 nietta, P. Langridge, S. Roberts, M. Rippon; David Atherton, Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, (ballet), Trossingen, Murray Louis cond., Sept. 4, 1985 Dance Troupe, Aug. 28, 29, 1985 Concert, London, Studio '68 International Theatre Festival, Gi Kurt-Weill-Revue, Wiesbaden, Hessischen Staatstheater, sela May, July 13, 1985 Maifestspiele, Guest by Theater des ~stens, Berlin, Nicole Happy End, London, Kensington and Chelsea Library, Studio '68, Heesters, May 22, 23, 1985 May, 1985. Kurt-Weill-Revue, Hamburg, Guest by Theater des Westens, Happy End, Tour, Royal Shakespeare Co.; Di Trevis, Stuart Berlin, Nicole Heesters, May 30-June 9, 1985 Hoppe, dirs.; Tony Castro, cond., Corby, Aug. 30, 31; .Re Kurt-Weill-Revue, Berlin, Theater des Westens, lngrid Caven, druth, Sept. 2, 3; Newton Abbott, Sept. 6, 7; Tiverton, Sept. June 14-22, 1985 11, 12; Castleford, Sept. 19-21; Workington, Sept. 24, 25; Die sieben Todsiinden, Various cities for 1986 tour, Milva Chorley, Oct. 3-5; Crawley, Oct. 10-12; Grimsby, Oct. 17-19: "So ist die Lieb" (revue), Mannheim, Kunsthalle, May 1985 Lincoln, Oct. 24.-26; Walsall, Oct. 28-30; Mansfield, Nov. 8, 9; Symphony, no. 2, Wurzburg, Hochschule fiir Musilc, February, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Nov. 15-17; Alton, Nov. 22, 23; 1986 Ryde, Nov. 29, 30; Stratford-on-Avon, Dec. 9-Jan. 25, 1986 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, London, Serenade Concerts, W!Il1ble FRANCE don Symphony Orchestra, June 19, 1985 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Royal Albert Hall, London Sinfonietta, Concert, Paris, Theatre de Paris, Sonia Rykiel, June, 1985 David Atherton, cond., Sept. 4, 1985 "Derniers tangos" {ballet), Strasbourg, Opera du Rhin, June 18. Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, London Sinfonietta, Diego Masson, 1985 cond., Feb. 12, 1986 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik. Murray Louis Dance Troupe, Tour in Symphony No. 2, London, Royal Academy of Music, Sinfonia Or cluding Annecy, Dijon, and Strasbourg, Sept. 1985 chestra, Lawrence Leonard, cond., July 8, 1985 Die sieben Todsiinden, Ballet du Nord, J.-C. Maillot, chor.• June, The Threepenny Opera, Oxford, St. Aldate's, St. John's Mum 1986 mers, May 7-11. 1985 Vom Tod im Wald, Paris, LondonSinfonietta, April 9, 1986 Violin Concerto, Leamington, Leamington Chamber Orchestra, P. Ibbotson; A. Mogrelia, cond., May 19, 1985 HONGKONG Happy End, Shonshon Theater, Vicky Wi, dir., Summer 1985. FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF Funded by the Goethe Institute GERMANY IRELAND Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Berlin, Spiegelzeit, Cor nelia Niemann, May 12, 1985 Az,fstiegund Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Wexford, We.xford Festi Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Bielefeld, Biihnen der val, Theatre Royal, S. Jolly, cond.; D. Donellan, dir.; S. Zan Stadt, D. de Villiers, dir., "Scenic Concert" noth, T. Spencer, N. Willis; Oct. 25, 28, 31, Nov. 3, 1985. Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Bergedorf, students; U. Becker, dir., May 3, 5, 7, 1985 Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Hamburg, Kampnagelfa ISRAEL brik, June 1985 Weill Evening: Berliner Requiem, "Pantomime I" from Der Pro Aufstiegund Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Munich, Staatstheater am tagonist, Die sieben Todsunden, Jerusalem, Israel Festival, Is Gartnerplatz, J. Herz, dir., in repertory June, July, 1985 raeli Sinfonietta, D. Alden, dir., June 1-3.1985 Aufetiegund Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Duisburg, Mercatorhalle, Rundfunk Orchester:, J. Latham-Konig, cond.; A. Silja; A. ITALY Dresen; dir.; June 4, 1985 Concert, Milan, Piccolo Teatro, HeleneDelavault, May, 1985 Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Neu-lnsenburg, touring Concert, Rome, Citta di Castello, Gisela May, Aug. 21, 1985 company of the Pfalztheater, February, 1986 Concert, Naples, Villa Patrizzi, Antonella d' Agostino, June 5 Cabaret-" Brecht-Chansonettes ," Cologne, Senftopfchen, Ina Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Genoa, Orchestra la Sampdor, K. and Devina, May 21-June 5, 1985 (also in Berlin, other cities) Arp, cond.; June 19, 1985 Concert, Clausthal, Gisela May, May 21, 1985 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Frascati, Estate Tuscolana, Grand Concert, Freiburg, Zelt-Musik-Festival, Sonja Kehler, June 10, Ensemble, A. Franceschelli, July 7, 1985 1985 Recital, Spoleto, Festival of Two Worlds, Joy Bogen, soprano. Concert, Dortmund, Kleine Westfalenhalle, Milva, Nov . 10, 1985 July 11, 1985 Down in the Valley, Biittgen, Gymnasium, students; Peter Port, Die sieben Todsunden, Naples, Teatro da Camera Villa Patrizzi, May 19, 1985 Antonella D' Agostino, June 20, 1985 Die Dreigroschenoper, Innsbruck, Tiroler Landestheater, May- Die sieben Todsunden, Venice, Biennale Teatro, Wuppertaler KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 22 Tanztheater, Pina Bausch, chor., May 24-26, 1985 dents, August 9, 1985 Die siehen Todsiinden, Rome, Teatro all' Argentina, Wuppertaler Down in the Valley, PBS, television rebroadcast, Aug. 9, 1985 Tanztheater, Pina Bausch, chor., June 19, 20, 1985 Happy End, Philadelphia, Wtlma Theatre, Wilma Theatre, dir.• Jiri Songs and Seminar, Carpi (Modena), Music Festival at Carpi, Zizka, May 21 through June 30, 1985 Milva, Sept.-Oct, 1985 Happy End, Los Angeles, The Powerhouse Theatre, Pacific The- Weill Concert, Venice, Teatro la Fenice, Wuppertaler Biihne, atre Ensemble, M. Tulin, S. Smythe, June 18-July 20, 1985 May 24-26, 1985 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Or chestra Hall, Chicago Symphony Oreb., Erich Leinsdorf. con., JAPAN May 23-25, 1985 Televised Weill/Brecht Concert, Tokyo, Japanese Philharmonic, Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, New York, Alice Tully Hall, Concordia Nina Hagen, vocalist, Aug. 20, 1985 Chamber Ensemble, Marin Alsop, cond., June 7, 1985 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Purchase, NY, SUNY, Philharmonia NETHERLANDS Vtrtuosi, Richard Kapp, cond., Feb. 23, 1986 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Purchase, Sumrnerfare Festival, Concert, Leyden, featuring Frauentmiz, Suite from DerSilbersee, Quatuor de Saxophones Contemporain, July 7, 1985 Vom Tod im Wald, Weill/Berio "Grand Lustucru," May 29, Knickerbocker Holiday, Jacksonville, Jacksonville University, stu 1985 dents, W. '¼!ssels. mus.; D. Sikes, dir.• A'pril 17, 18, 1986 Der Silbersee, Amsterdam, Netherlands Sinfonie, Ashkenazy, "Mack the Knife," performed by the Boston Pops, John Wtlliams, cond., Beginning Nov. l, 1985. cond., on tour, Summer, 1985 "Mack the Knife," performed by Liberace on tour, Summer, 1985 SCOTLAND Mahagonny Songspiel, New York, 92nd Street YMHA, Y Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz, cond, March 15, 16, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Tour of the Scottish Op 1986 era; E. Ross, F. Palmer; S. Rattle, cond.: D. Alden, dir.; Glas gow, Mar. 5,8,25,27,29; Edinburgh, Mar. 12,15; Aberdeen, Mahagonny Songspiel, Purchase, Summerfare Festival, Peter Sellars, dir.; July 25-28 1985 Mar. 19, 22; Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, apr. 2, 5, 1986. 1 Concert, East Kilbride, Scottish National Orchestra, Elise Ross, Revue, visiting nursing homes in various NY cities, AMAS Rep. Theater, Rosetta LeNoire, dir. , Summer, 1985 sop., May 22, 1985 "Saga of Jenny," Davenport, IA, Quad Cities Symphony ffPops" Concert, Mary Beth Peel, James Dixon, cond. Sept. 8, 1985 SWEDEN The Seven Deadly Sins and Furchtet Euch Ntcht. Brooklyn Acad KleineDreigroschenmusik, Aarhus, Aarhus Symphony Oreb, Ole emy of Music, Next Wave Festival, Wuppertaler Tanztheater, Schmidt, May 23, 1985 Pina Bausch, chor. 1 Oct. 17-22, 1985 Street Scene, Hanover, NH, Dartmouth College, July 19-Aug. 24, SWITZERLAND 1985 - Street Scene, Chautauqua, NY. Spiro Malas, Karen Huffstodt: Berliner Reqz,iem, Geneva, Collegium Academicum, Michel Du Cynthia Auerbach, dir.; John De Main, cond.; July 26, 29, 1985 monthay, May 19, 1985 Street Scene, Rutgers, NJ, Rutgers Univ. Opera \\brkshop, Valo Die Dreigroschenoper, Gossau, Gymnasium Friedburg, Beginning rie Goodall, Nov. 1986 Nov. 8, 1985 The Threepenny Opera, Los Angeles, Loyola High School, May 1- Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (ballet), Murray Louis Dance Troupe, 12, 1985 in Geneva and Lausanne, Sept. 1985 The Threepenny Opera, East-West Players, East West Players, May 22-July 7, 1985 TASMANIA The Threepenny Opera, Kent, Kent School, May 26-28, 1985 The Threepenny Opera, San Francisco, Eureka Theatre Company, DieDreigroschenoper, Newton, Tasmania, May, 1985 Oskar Eustis, dir.; June 26 through Aug. ll, 1985 The Threepenny Opera, Holland, Hope College Summer Theatre, UNITED STATES June 28-Aug. 31, 1985 The Threepenny Opera, Villanova, PA, Villanova Univ. Summer Ballet: "Three Penny Dances," Glassboro, Glassboro State Col Theater, July, 1985 lege, Ne.w Jersey State Ballet, Norbert Vesak, chor., May 19, The Threepenny Opera, Shoreham, Shoreham Wading River 1985 School, Aug. 23, 24, 1985 Berlin to Broadway, Providence, Barker Playhouse, June, 1985 The Threepenny Opera., Carbondale, Southern Illinois University, Berlin to Broadway, San Francisco area, Marin Community Play Oct. 3-6, 1985 house, Marin Civic Light Opera, June 28-July 6, 1985 The Threepenny Opera, Western Illinois University, students, Oct. Berlin to Broadway, Los Angeles, Zephyr Theater, extended run. 31-Nov. 2, 1985 Cabaret, New York, Upstairs at Greene Street, Ellen Foley, The Threepenny Opera, Des Moines, Drake University, Nov. 15- throughout summer, 1985 23, 1985 Concert, Syracuse, Landmark Theatre Grand Promena, Syra The Threepenny Opera, Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, cuse Vocal Ensemble, May 12, 1985 Andrew Traister, dir.• 85/86 Season Concerts, Purchase, NY, Summerfare Festival, Gisela May, July The Threepenny Opera, Rochester, NY, Opera Theater of Roches 4-6, 1985 ter, Jan. 25-26, 1986 Concerts, National Chorale, Martin Josman, dir.; Stamford, CT, The Threepenny Opera, Providence, RI, Brown Univ., James 0. Cove Island Park, July 21, 1985; New York, Damrosch Park, Barnhill, dir., Feb., 1986 July 30, 1985; Westchester. NY, Westchester Festival, Aug. 1, The Threepenny Opera, Orlando, FL, Good Shepherd Church, 1985 Feb. 28, Mar. 1, 2, 1986 Down in the Valley, San Angelo, TX, Angelo State University, May The Threepenny Opera, North Babylon, NY, Our Lady of Grace 2, 4, 1985 Players, Mar. 8-9, 15-16, 1986 Down in the Valley, Bartlesville, OK, Bartlesville Wesleyan Col The Threepenny Opera, Kansas City, Lyric Opera, April 16, 18, 21, lege, May 3, 1985 26.1986 Down in the Valley, Wheatridge, CO, Northland Chorale, May 17, The Threepenny Opera, San Bernardino, California State Univ., A. 18, 24, 25, 1985 S. Rudisill, dir., May 29 to June 7, 1986 Down in the Valley, Laurel, MD, Oaklands Presbyterian Church, Violin Concerto, Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati, May 21., 1985 June 8, 9, 1985 Violin Concerto, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Chamber Ensemble; R. Down in the Valley, Flagstaff, Northern Arizona University, stu- Evans, violonist, April 3, 1986 KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 23 RESPONSE FORM Name ______Institution ______Address ______ Telephone Number ______(Home) ______(Work) _ __ Add my name to mailing list ___ Delete my name from mailing list ___ Update listing Detach and mail to: Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., 142 West End Ave., Suite 1-R, New York, New York 10023 THE KURT WEILL FOUNDATION FOR MUSIC 14 2 West End Avenue, Suite 1-R Non Profit Org. New York, New York 10023 U.S. Postage Phone: (212) 873-1465 PAID New York, N.Y. Permit No. 893