KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER Vol. 2 No. 1 Spring 1984

Foundation Initiates Grants Program Early Weill Manuscripts Discovered The Board of Trustees is pleased to contain a detailed description of the On November 5, 1983, during the last announce the establishment of the project, a current resume of individuals day of the Kurt Weill Conference at Foundation's first grants program, de­ involved and/or a profile of purposes, Yale University, Foundation President signed to further its goals of promoting activities and past achievements of or­ Kirn Kowalke announced the discovery public understanding and appreciation ganizations, and an itemized statement of 14 early Weill manuscripts dating of the musical works of Kurt Weill. In of how the amom1t requested would be from 1916-19, with one fragment com­ 1984, the Foundation is accepting pro­ utilized. After applications have been posed possibly as early as 1911. Of the posals in five major categories related reviewed by the Foundation's staff, ad­ 14 manuscripts, 11 are of compositions to the perpetuation of Weill' s artistic ditional supporting materials may be W1known to have existed, or presumed legacy: requested for consideration by the Ad­ lost. Dr. Hanne Weill Holesovsky, l. Research Grants visory Panel on Grant Evaluations, daughter of Weill's brother Hanns, in­ 2. Publicatwn Assistance which will make recommendations to formed Lys Syrnonette in November, 3. Performance and Production Grants the Board of Trustees. Grants will be 1981, that her mother, Rita Weill (now 4. Dissertatwn Fellowships awarded on an objective and non-dis­ deceased), might possess a number of 5. Travel Grants criminatory basis. Selection criteria items relating to Kurt Weill. The Foun­ Preliminary applications should be will include: the relevance and value of dation was able to secure photocopies received by April 30, 1984, and must the proposed project to the achieve­ of the majority of the manuscripts and ment of the Foundation's purpose; the the copies are now available for study quality of the project; evidence of the at the Weill/Lenya Research Center. Firebrand Parts Found applicant's potential, motivation, and The original manuscripts are safely ability to carry out the project success­ sealed in a bank vault awaiting a pro­ In a surprise call from Eugene Moon fully; and evidence of the applicant's bate settlement, after which the Foun­ of Theodore Presser Co., the Fom1da­ prior record of achievement in the field dation will begin negotiations for their tion recently learned of the existence of covered by the project. Applicants will purchase. Included in the discovery are the orchestral material (parts, chorus be informed of awards by July 1, 1984. an Intermezzo for piano (1917), an Or­ parts) to Firebrand of Florence, Weill's Please address all proposals and cor­ chestral Suite (ea. 1919) and portions of 1945 musical with lyrics by Ira Gersh­ respondence to David Farneth at the a song cycle, Ofrah 's Lieder (ea. win and book by Edwin Justis Mayer. Foundation's headquarters. 1916-17). Presser had custody of the materials due to earlier contractual arrange­ ments with Chappell & Co. Although the show had a disappointing run on Broadway, the operetta-like score con­ tains some of Weill's most engaging music. The discovery makes possible the realization of revivals without the investment of thousands of dollars re­ quired for copying the orchestral parts. Jnquiries regarding Firebrand of Florence should be addressed to the Foundation.

September Song

Walter Huston's 1938 recording of "September Song" was a Hall of Fame winner at this year's Grammy Awards.

Hutton· Cobb and Linda Lou Allen share a tender moment in Down in the Valley on PBS' "Great Performances." NEWS IN BRIEF

Foundation Sponsors Yale Exhibits Weill Surveyed Mu_sicales to Introduce Weill Manuscripts at Two Universities Young Artists T he Yale Music Library, which Courses on Kurt Weill are currently houses the W eill/Lenya Archive, will being planned at two American univer­ have an exhibit of archival materials sities. Dr. Alexander Ringer of the 1n co1taboration with the New York this summer during June, July, and University of Illinois, Champaign­ Chapter of the Alumni Association of August in Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Urbana, reports that, "by popular the Curtis Institute of Music, the Kurt and Manuscript Library. On display demand,'' he is working to schedule an Weill Foundation will begin its pro­ will be a selection of autograph manu­ intensive four-week summer course on jected series of musicales on April 27 at scripts of Weill's, correspondence with Weill's operatic and theatrical works. 8 p.m. Ruth D'Agostino, soprano, colleagues such as Milhaud,. Ira Ger­ The lecture course for graduate Katherine Turner, soprano, Blair shwin, Brecht, Georg Kaiser, Ma>...'Well students would begin early in July, Wilson, tenor, and Reginald Pindell, Anderson, and Ogden Nash, docu­ 1984. Prof. David Laurent of Brown baritone, will present a program of ments from the careers of Weill and University, Providence, Rl, is working songs by Kurt Weill, Ned Rorem, Lenya, and a large display of icono­ on a Weill course for undergraduates, Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein. graphy. Summer hours at the Beinecke in conjunction with Brown's German All of these young artists are graduate Library are Monday-Friday 8:30-5:00, Department. This course, if approved, students of the Curtis Institute, and Saturday 10:00-5:00, and Sunday would also focus on stage works, and have made appearances with major 2:00-5:00 (closed weekends in August). would be taught during the 1984-85 musical organizations in both opera school year. Previous "composer and concert. Due to limited seating Blatas Exhibition courses" at Brown have examined please call the Foundation for reserva­ Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Verdi; tions. in Venice Weill would be the first twentieth cen­ Artist Arbit Blatas will be featured in tury composer to be studied in recent an exhibition entitled Impressions of memory. Down in the Valley The Threepenny Opera at the Teatro on Great Performances Goldoni in Venice between August 30 and October 1. The exhibition will in· The editor welcomes submission of news elude oils, lithographs and bronzes and items, reviews, and articles by readers for PBS will present the Kurt Weill­ is co-sponsored by the Italian Commis­ inclusion in future issues of the Newsletter. Arnold Sundgaard folk opera, Down in sioner of Culture and the City of Submission deadline for the next issue is the Valley, as part of its "Great Perfor­ Venice. The internationally renowned August 15, 1984. mances" series. Air time for New York painter and sculptor has created a large City is 8 PM, April 16, but affiliates' body of work inspired by The The Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 1984 broadcasts may vary, so check your Threepenny Opera and was a long-time local listings. friend of Lenya. Blatas' interpretation David Farneth, Editor Produced by the Moving Picture of Lenya in bronze is on display at the Company, the film was directed by Weill/Lenya Research Center. William Madison. Assistant to the Editor Frank Cvitanovich, co-produced by Cvitanovich and Nigel Stafford-Clark, Weill/Lenya Research and Carl Davis was musical director. © Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. Shot on location in England, a1t di­ 1984 Center Hosts 142 West End Ave-Suite 1R rector Anton Furst transformed the Music Library Meeting New York, NY 10023 local countryside into the Smokey (212) 873-1465 Mountains. On April 28, the Greater New York Board of Trustees Linda Lou Allen stars as J ennie; Chapter of the Music Library Associa­ Hutton Cobb is her hapless lover, Kim Kowalke, President tion will hold its spring meeting at the Lys Symonette, Vice-President Brack Weaver; and Van Hinman is the Weill/Lenya Research Center. Topics Henry Marx, Vice-President preacher. Singer Judy Collins will host on the program include the Founda­ Guy Stern, Secretary the broadcast. The production, tion's history and programs, the ar­ Milton Coleman, Treasurer originally aired last year on BBC Harold Prince chive collections and poljcies, and the Julius Rudel Channel 4, will mark Down in the recently discovered Weill manuscripts. Valley 's American debut on national The meeting will conclude with a Foundation Staff television. musical presentation by Curtis In· Kim Kowalke, President Lys Symonette, Musical Executive stitute of Music students and a tour of David Fameth, Archivist/Director of the Research Center. Prognuns William Madison, Program Assistant

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAG~ 2 THE PRESIDENT'S COLUMN The Motto of Mahagonny: ''Du Darfst!" by Kirn Kowalke of horrors, but also for many producers and Ina Wittich, without any license Mahagonny has always had an identi· and directors of Mahagonny who create whatsoever. When I attended a perfor­ ty problem. Whenever I hear of a new their own horrors night after night. mance of this "Brecbtfest," I found an production, my first question is always, Like the city ofnets, the opera needs no hour-long burlesque of the two Maha· "Which Mahagonny?" The Songspiel or hurricanes or typhoons for its destruc­ gonnys, accompanied by piano, croaked the opera? the Paris version or the Cur· tion-men can do as well. As Jimmy by non-singers, with a Scott Joplin rag jel version? the Berliner Ensemble's Macintyre advises in Scene 11, ''Now's interpolated and most of the lyrics of "Kleine Mahagonny" or some other, the time to indulge in forbidden acts the opera rendered as spoken dialogue. new concoction? Since there are only . . . no laws will stop it!'' Apparently In December 1983, the Foundation two versions of Mahagonn~ authorized not. The last year bas witnessed no learned of a similar production at the for performance throughout the world fewer than five blatant and willful in­ San Francisco Repertory Theatre, (the Songspiel [UE 1112889] and the full. fringements ofMahagonny 's copyright. again performed without license in a length opera [UE #9851)), one might Following Jimmy's instructions to ig­ version entitled, " Mahagonny . .. City think that concern would center on nore the law, five theatres on both sides of Nets," but passing itself off to an un­ such challenging textual issues as the of the Atlantic have kicked down Ma· suspecting audience as the 1927 Song­ most workable translation, the place­ hagonny's walls. And in the process, spiel. The same month our clipping ser­ ment of the ''Crane Duet," the choice "the one who gets kicked" is Kurt vice picked up reviews of a Maha.gonny · of "Havana Lied'' or the inclusion of Weill. staged by the Schauspielhaus in "Benares Song." Not so; since Weill's Infringements Worldwide Bochum, West Germany: the headline death there have been more presenta­ read "Weill on the Floor''! Again this tions of bastardized mish-mashes of Since Lenya's death, the Foundation was a m1sh-mash "version for actors," Mahagonny than productions of either has attempted to rescue Mahagonny defended by the theatre's management the Songspiel or the opera! from such devastation-largely with­ as a reconstruction of the "lost" (!?!) "Do whatever you want" seems to out success. Last year the Odyssey 1927 Songspiel. The theatre bad ob­ have become the motto not only for the Theatre in Los Angeles staged a Maha­ tained a license and score for the people of Mahagonny after their night gonny, directed join~ly by Ron Sossi continued on page 4

diverse and sometimes controversial Fritz Lang; a filmed concert presenta­ Weill Conference at Yale scholarly contributions, John Rockwell tion of Der Lindberghflug; and the new wrote in TheNew1York Times." .. . one Moving Picture Company production Scholars from three continents of the most striking things about the of Down in the Valley. Saturday night's gathered in New Haven, Conn., Nov. papers ... was their pervasive tone closing banquet featured guest speaker 2·5, 1983, to share research, ideas and of cool•eyed evaluation." Burgess Meredith sharing some re­ opinions at the first international Kurt There was plenty of opportunity to markable reminiscences of his long as· Weill Conference. Co·sponsored by the compare the discoveries expounded sociation with Weill and Lenya. Later, Yale University Music Library and the upon in the lecture hall with the sound the New Amsterdam Theatre Com­ Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, the of the music itself. The evening of Nov. pany performed excerpts from One conference celebrated the establish· 2 featured a performance by Yale stu· Touch of Venus. ment of the Weill/Lenya Archive at dents and ensembles of Sonate fiir The conference provided a unique Yale, the result of Lenya's bequest of Vi,oloncello und Klavier, Die Bekehrte. forum for scho1ars and musicians to Weill's manuscripts to that institution. Das Stud.enbuch.: Orchesterlieder nach dissect Weill's musical contlibutions 31 participants, including musicolo· Texten van Rilke, op. 13 und 14, Vom and to remind each other of the far· gists, critics, composers and directors, Tod im Wald, Prauenlanz and Kleine reaching influences of Weill's and presented lectures to over 100 regis­ Dreigroschemnusik. The following Lenya's productive lives. Throughout trants. David Drew, the eminent Weill night the Sequoia String Quartet per· the event·packed week, new discover­ scholar, delivered the keynote address formed Weill's String Quartet no. 1, oj,. ies unfolded as the participants shared which focused on the musical and his­ 8 and Quart.et in B Minor, while round­ and combined their individual knowl­ torical considerations of Der Kuh.han· ing out the program with Haydn's edge. Again quoting from John Rock· del, the pivotal work in Weill's oeuvre. Quartet, op. 20, no. 2. On Friday, a well, " More important even than any Program chainnan Dr. Kim Kowalke cheering audience recognized conduc• ... specific revelations was the sense organized the presentations into the· tor Otto-Werner Mueller and the Phil­ of community the conference provided matic sessions: the context of the Euro­ harmonic Orchestra of Yale for an out· to Weill scholars, and the opportunity pean operas; Weill-Brecht collabora· standing performance of the Second to share information, opinions and tions; American works; reminiscences Symphony. Late night enthusiasts were sources for further research. That by collaborators of Weill and Lenya; treated to screenings of films for which sense of community may eventually ex· Weill's relation to the cabaret idiom Weill wrote the soundtracks: Salute to tend to warring camps of Brecht and and the works of Berg and Schonberg; France, a 1944 U.S. Department of De­ Weill scholars ... which have battled and Weill's stature in twentieth century fense propaganda film; You, and Me, a one another more vociferously than music and theatre. Summarizing the 1937 Paramount release directed by Brecht and Weill ever did themselves."

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 "Du Darfst" continued gO'n.ny stem from both the current stature of be accepted by the state-supported opera Sungspiel; the Foundation stopped all fur­ the librettist as a playwright and Brecht's houses and persuaded the authors to tone ther performances in Bochum despite en­ own attempts during hjs lifetime to convert down the brothel scene. The magnificent treaties for mercy based on an innoceoce­ the original opera into something more in setting of the ''Crane Duet'' was Weill's so­ by-vittue-of-ignorance plea. keeping with his later political ideology and lution. After Otto Klemperer reneged on a aesthetics. As late as 1979, one of Brecht's In December, archivist David Farneth at­ premiere at the Krolloper in Berlin, Gustav stalwart apologists, Eric Bentley, wrote the tended a performance of "Mahagonny" in Brech er accepted Mahagonny for Leipzig. It following for the premiere of the opera at had always been conceived for opera sing­ Paris -at the Bouffes du Nord Theatre, di­ the Met: ers, and now it was to have its premjere in a rected by Hans Peter Cloos. Again it was a major house under a first-rate conductor. neatly unrecognizable travesty of the opera, In maintaining that the great opera with "Surabaya Johnny" and "Bilbao Mahagonny is. in the last analysis. a Because the score had been published be­ Song" from Happy End stuck into the lip­ great play. I intend to take nothing fore the Leipzig premiere in March 1930, and the rehearsals aflected a number of syoched, synthesized soundtrack-all under away from Kurt Weill.... (But) a sin­ changes, the published score presented a the guise of a license for only the Songspiel. gle vision, a single mind, controls all, and it is not that of KurtWeill .... Is it version that was never performed intact. (Mr. Farneth's review appears on page 11). More revisions preceded the seven perfor­ Finally, Michael Feingold (whose transla­ an opera? ls Brecht's text a libretto? ls tion of Mahagonny is quoted in this essay) it not. as 1 have been saying, a play? mances in Kassel which commenced tlu·ee days later under Maurice Abravanel. Each reported· a production by the Remains The­ With such calculated rhetoric emanating atre in Chicago directed by Wanen Leming. from someone who bas the reqwsite factual After applying for and recejving a quotation information and theatiical savvy to know But when a major German for a license of the Songspi.el, the Remains better, who could resist the implied invita­ repertory company also op­ Theatre informed the Brecht-Weill agents tion to strip Mahagonny of most of its music that their production had been cancelled and convert the remainder to "Misuk" so era tes under the illusion because the modest fee was beyond their that it becomes just another play in the sanc­ that "Everything Is Per­ means. A few months later we obtained a tioned Brecht canon? One hears rumors of mitted" in Mahagonny, program of their unautho1ized and unli­ similar plans for a Joseph Papp La Boh'eme censed performances of "Be1tolt Brecht's starring Linda Ronstad.t, but Puccini's there must be more at work The Rise and Fall ofthe City ofMahagon11~. '' opera is in the public domain and as ''fair here than meets the eye. featuring a new musical score by "A. F. game" as Carmen was for Peter Brook. But Wittek, Wanen Leming, and the Cast,'' a how can such a thing be perpetrated on of the other productions in 1930 (including one-man band, a ten-member cast, and a Mahagonny time after time when it is a Prague under Szell and Frankfurt under te.xt ''drawing on" the translation of Auden merged work, with Weill's contribution to Steinberg) incorporated additional minor re­ and KaJlman. The director included the both te.xt and music fully protected by law? visions and reordering. following manifesto in the program: To understand this sih1ation is to 1mder­ Weill's Revisions The current production marks the stand the history of Mahagon.ny. premiere of a NEW Mahagonny . .. A Troubled Past The carefully orchestrated Nazi propa­ Our Mahagom~y stands at the begin­ ganda campaign against the work culmi­ ning of a new super hlghway leadmg In 1927, Weill set Brecht's previously nated in violent demonstrations at a Frank, out of the past. The old Mahagomzy published "Mahagonny Gesange" and a futt perfonnance and virtually wiped Maha­ has been attracting the "wrong" sort new finale-text as a Songs/)iel with in­ gonny from the schedules of all other state­ of clientele for too many years; and strumental interludes (but no dialogue) to supported theatres. As Weill put it, "Other the town has aiways been much too fuliill his commissioi1 for a one-act opera at theatres tried to hide their fear behind all expensive. In documenting this pro­ the Baden-Baden Festival of New Music. kinds of excuses. They voluntarily capitu­ duction we make accessible to other Without plot or real characters, trus thirty­ lated to cen·sorship that clidn't really exist, companies, a Mahagonny at an afford­ five minute dramatic cantata for ten instru­ and which. if it really does come. will be at­ able price. The new Mahagomiy is mentalists and six singers in evening dress tributable primarily to such cowardice." Af­ now open for business and available, created a sensation. As Heinrich Strobel ter all other hopes for a Berlin production at last, to those of "limited means.'' noted, "the philistines greeted the aggres­ had been extinguished (including one by sive songs of this highly non-bourgeois piece Ordinarily one rnigbt "look the other way" Max Reinhardt), Weill accepted Ernst Jo­ with hoots, whistles and rotten apples. The seph Aufricht's proposal to capitalize on hjs and ignore such pathetic attempts to reduce keen of healing recognized that something one of the few twentieth-century operatic success with Die Dreigroschcnopr!r by new had been founded here. Declaring that mounting Mahagormy in a commercial run masterpieces to naive agit-prop theatre. But the S011gspiel had been nothing more than a when a major German repertory company at the Theater am Kurftirstendam. Weill stylistic test for the full-length opera, which once again revised the score, tbis time to also operates under the illusion that "Eve1y­ had already been started, Weill withdrew thing Is Permitted" in Mahagonny, there suit the vocal capacities of Lenya and some the Songspiel and never attempted to publish of the other Berlin "names" in the cast. He must be more at work here than meets the it during his lifetime. Later in 1927, he eye. cut the "Crane Duet," simplified Jenny's Ques tion o-f Identity reported to his publisher that he and Brecht vocal line for Lenya, deleted the "Benares were working daily on the Mahagom1y li­ Song" and streamlined the whole with other But why Mahagonny? Although many bretto, "whose total plan and scenario were cuts. That this was a matter of one-time, ex­ operas from Monteverdi through Verdi being worked out together in all details ac­ pedient compromise rather than a definitive have widely varying textual versions requir­ cording to musical considerations," After recomposition for "singing actors'' is re­ ing case-by-case solutions for each new pro­ the text had been finished under rus supervi-- flected in his insistence that Alexander van duction, Mahagonny appears to be uruque sion, Weill began the score, which wascom­ Zemlinsk-y (rather than Theo Mackeben) among operas still protected by internation­ pleted in April 1929, despite an intermption conduct the miginal orchestration and his al copyright statutes in that it is consistently for Die Dreigroschenopcr and sever;u inci­ hope that the great Marie Gutheil-Schoder mutilated by radical attempts to rewrite it as dental theatre scores. would sing Begbick. T. W. Adorno's high another of Brecht's "plays with music." The opera was already in trouble. Emil praise for the musical values of the Berlin Surely the reasons for the continous tamper­ Hertzka, the director of Universal Edition, production is confirmed on a recording of ing with the fundamental elements of Mahn- convinced WeTI1 that the piece would never members o-f the cast (including Harold

KU RT W EILL NEWS LETTER PAGE 4 Paulsen and the soprano-Lenya) with the stitution of the 1921 ''Havana Lied"). The duction and made no secret of her dislike for Orchestra zum Kurflirstendam (HMV­ 1963 London production conducted by Colin it. With music arranged by Hans Dieter EH736), conducted by Hans Sommer (a Davis was the first since 1930 to be deter­ Hosalla, it had been accomplished without pseudonym for Zernlinsky?). Even though it mined from the outset by musical consid­ Lenya's knowledge, much less her consent. ran fifty performances in a commercial erations, and also (partly for that very She learned of the new Mahogomzy from a house in a much-compromised version, Ma­ reason} the first to make use of those au­ knowledgeabl'e and trusted friend who saw hagomzy was most definitely still an opera. then tic pre-and post-premiere revisions that the production and wrote her: During the December 1931 rehearsals, David Drew had been able to trace. Univer­ Caspar Neher's and Weill's insistence on sal Edition published David Drew's new edi­ I must tell you that it is the most dis­ graceful thing l have heard and seen the dominance of musical considerations tions of both the Son,gspiel (1963) and the had driven Brecht (now a "born-again" opera (1969), which incorporated all the al­ in all my life. In my whole experience Marxist) from the theatre to direct Di.e Mul­ terations with detailed annotations. Mah.a­ of the musical world I have never met ler. The differences between Weill/Neher gonny was finally precisely mapped; there or heard of anything so utterly unprin­ and Brecht bad already been documented in was no longer any reason to get lost on the cipled. It is announced in the program their published statements concerning the way. as "Das kleine Mahagonny. Nach opera. Brecht's famous "Anmerkungen" of dem Songspiel von 1927. Musik: Kurt 1930, written without consultation with Weill." To start with, this is a down­ Weill or Neher, camouflaged and ultimately right lie. "Nach" indeed! Do you sabotaged the tme nature of the opera. know what they have done? They Brecht's notes are in direct conflict with have ·arranged a potted version of the Weill's views and have no validity for per­ libretto of the opera, which is pro­ formances of the opera. A new, definitive duced as a short one-act play. .. . The edition incorporating Weill's best· solutions whole musical "score," such as it is, was to have been published by UE, the the has been arranged for a small band by events of 1933 killed the project. the musical director at the Schiff­ bauerdamm (though there is no men­ Post-war Productions tion of this in the program). As far as I can remember, there is not a single Mahagonny was not heard again in any­ absolutely authentic bar of Weill from thing approaching its full form until 1957. start to finish. He is simply annihi­ There wasan hour-long studio production in lated. As for what they do to the Vienna with Lenya in April 1932, and in De­ meaning of the work, that too is be­ cember, at the invitation of Marie-Laure, yond description. But in so far as that the Vicomtesse de Noailles, Mahagonny ap­ concerns Brecht, it is their funeral. peared on a double-bill with Der jasager. Yet it affects Weill since he collabo­ This was the "Paris version," comprising rated on and supervised the original the Songspiel plus several "Songs" from the libretto throughout. . .. Remember opera adapted for smaller ensemble by all that pious stuff Brecht wrote about Abravanel and directed by Hans Curjel. De­ the artist versus commercial interests spite WeiU's earlier statement that "the with regard to the 1930 case of the thing I wish to prevent above all else is that Threepenny Opera film? Here a 100% Mnhagonny should be cut down to the basis commercial slaughter bas taken of Songs or song-like pieces," he approved place, such as only the lowest Broad­ this temporary arrangement as a vehicle for way producer would contemplate­ Lenya that would also serve as a predictable and then have to reject simply be­ and strongly contrasted counterpart to Der cause it is illegal. jasager. The ecstatic reception for this patchwork helped pave the way for his move to Paris a few months later, and it was ". . . the thing I wish to this version that toured to London and Rome in 1933. prevent above all else is that Mahagonny should be When Universal Edition resumed busi­ ness in its pre-Anschluss style following cut down to the basis of World War II., the full extent of its wa1time Songs or song-like pieces.'' losses was still unclear, and for some while it -WEILL was thought that the entire orchestral mate­ rial for the Mahagormy opera had been con­ fiscated or destroyed. But the " Paris ver• After an initial protest to Universal Edition, sion" of the Songspiel had sw-vived, and it Lenya was eventually persuaded to allow provided the basis for the 1949 production in the Ensemble to keep this travesty (in every Venice, directed once again by Curjel. The No sooner had the 30-year confusion sur­ sense of the word) of Mahagonny in its discovery in 1953 or thereabouts of an intact rounding the various Mahagonnys been repertory. It is still performed and passed full score and set of parts for the entire sorted out than the Berliner Ensemble, off as '' echt'' Brecht in East Berlin and occa­ opera prompted the complete recording fea­ founded by Brecht himself, staged "Das sionally on tour. Although a live perfor­ turing Lenya as Jenny (with her music now Kleine Mahagonny" in celebration of the mance was recorded and released (Litera transposed and further altered). This in turn author's sixty-fiftb birthday. Once again, it .8/60/034-035), Lenya instructed Universal inspired the Da1mstadt Landestheater to was a mixture of the Smigspiel and the Edition that "Das kleine Mahagonny" was mount in 1957 the first post-war staged per­ opera. This play-with-Mzsuk was allegedly to be restricted without exception to the formance. Like its immediate successors, based on the recollections of Elisabeth Berliner Ensemble alone. the production was based on the unrevised Hauptmann and HeleneWeigel, who bad at­ lo a recent letter to me, Universal Edition pre-premiere material (apart from the sub- tended the opening of the 1963 London pro- stated that the firm had not knowingly li-

KU R T WEILL NEWSLETTER P A GE 5 r

censed any other performances of the Ber­ excluded from their domain altogetller. liner Ensemble text. It has gone under­ Theatrical admirers have adopted the same Weill reported to his pub­ ground, turning up in only slightly mutant approach, but as substantiation for their lisher that he and Brecht strains-unfortunately morefrequently than squatter's claim on the territory of Maha­ were working daily on the the full-length opera-in London, Ztirich. gmmy. Those more concerned with political Los Angeles, the Edinburgh Festival, and message than artistic medium have fried to Mahagonny libretto, the Yale Repertory Theatre (after its suc­ proselytize the manifesto they find in Maha­ "whose total plan and cessful and authentk productions of both gom1y without concern for "&tist" aesthetic scenario were being the Songspiel and the opera)-all witbout considerations. Their opponents react by worked out together in all permission and in most cases without pay­ dismissing the piece as ''anarchist and com­ ment of royalties. Lenya's files are filled munist." just as reactionaries in Germany details according to did after the Leipzig premiere. Weill himself musical considerations." answered such attacks: ''They mjsunder­ " ... despite and because stood the whole thing in Leipzig, They of its primitive facade, thought it was a satire, which it isn't; and it see 21 J anuary 1984 Opera News) view Mahagonny must be has nothing to do with commtmism. lt's the beautiful singing of Weill's music as a cor­ story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Brecht and 1 ruption of sacrosanct tradition. ln automa­ counted among the most had a moral idea as the background of the tically asswning tl1at everything Weill wrote difficult works of today." opera, namely, that a society given to mate­ was intended for Lenya-like voices, Mr. - T. W . ADORNO rialism must perish-which is hardly cyni­ Rorem, of course. missed the fundamental cal." Misunderstandings of this morality difference (which Weill constantly empha­ play seem even more entrenched today than sized and Lenya also recognized) between wit11 correspondence dealing with the recur­ in 1930. his music intended for singing actors (Die ring problem. At UE's urging, she reluc­ Other Works "Re vised" Dnugroschenoper and Happy End) and that tantly allowed an experimental "middle­ for operatic singers of the highest caliber sized' ' Mnhngo,my to be patched together in Mahagcmny is not the only victim of such (Mahagonny, Die Bztrgschaft). With Mr. Dilsseldorf in 1976; but otherwise she stead­ "revisionism." After Brecht's conversion to Rorem's opinion so widely accepted as fastly resisted all attempts to reduce the Marxism, Weill helplessly watched him truth. it is not surprising tl1at Mahagvmzy is operatic metropolis of Mahagomzy to a turn De1']asagerupside-down into Der Nein­ usually populated by pop singers, chan­ bowdlerized hamlet. Since her death, the sager. Die Dreigroschenoper was politicized teuses and retirees without much voice left. Foundation has forbidden performances of first in the Pabsl film and then further in Suggested Remedies any "mish-mash" Mahagonnys and specifi­ Brecht's Die Be11le, the vestiges of which What can be done? It must be possible to cally denied permission for a "new" version still cling erroneously to the original play. cultivate a balanced appreciation for both in Gtittingen that had been scheduled for After Weill's death, two little words, " der Brecht's and Weill's contributions to their production later this year. But apparently to Klein burger," were surreptitiously ap­ varied collaborations without distorting the no avail. pended to the title of Die siebe11 Todsttnden works themselves. Surely the first step is a Misunderstood Morality as ideological window-dressing. Der lind­ restoration of the authentic texts of the bcrgliflug was posthumously purged to a Again, why Ma/zagomiy? When Adorno works, both on new recordings and in au­ more "collective'' Ozea1iflug. Lenya fought reviewed the Frankfurt production in 1930, thorized performance materials. With such the trend as best she could. A telegram sent he asserted that "despite and because of its solid bases, a full range of interpretations to UE in 1968 is representative of her frus­ primitive facade, Mahagomzy must be can be encouraged, with each new produc­ tration: counted among the most difficult works of tion seeking imaginative solutions to the today.·· lt still is. Its inherent theatrical and Enough damage was done to Little challenges inherent in the works. Creativity musical challenges. its ''loose'' structure. Malwgonny and appalling changes to can t11en be channelled toward its proper and its conflicting levels of meaning and Lindberghflighl by Schulze-Rohr. role-the re-creation of the authors· inten­ manner have been compounded by its own Under no circumstances will I ever al­ tions in a manner most meaningful to the mythology and irrelevant theoretica1/ideo­ low anyone to destroy the Jasager by particular circumstances of the production. logical baggage. Even when staged in "un­ making it fit the Marxist Neinsager. There can be no definitive staging of Malza­ tainted" form, as Andrew Porter has aptly jasagi-r will remain in its original con­ gomiy for all times and all places. But there observed, Mahagomiy tends to have a some­ ception. I am horrified by your atti­ is a definitive text for each of the two Maha­ what different mus.ical text in each produc­ tude toward Weill's music. gonnys (with many choices still left to the in­ dividual production) that sets the boun­ tion. T he tension between its aggressive But she herself also unwittingly contri­ text and decidedly "culinary" music daries for the construction of the city. The buted to some of the "revisions." Her legen­ precipitates as much disagreement among Weill Foundation has been entrusted with dary and authoritative interpretations pre­ its re-creators as il did among its creators. the responsibility of patrolling the outskirts empted any question about eitller the legiti­ is still located somewhere bet­ of Mahagonny for trespassers. Let it be Malmgomzy macy of the musical texts themselves in her ween Atsena and Pensacola-it hasn't found known that poachers and other copY)ight in­ later recordings or the ramifications of her a secure place in the standard operatic fringers will be prosecuted with the same vocal limitations for the works themselves. repertory. and most theatre companies vigor with which the Foundation will assist Today, many admirers of Weill's music(in­ simply cannot cope with its musical honest revivals of the work. There may be cluding one so distinguished as Ned Rorem, demands. Since institutions and their au­ "nothing you can do to help a dead man,'' diences tend to change very slowly. it's been but Weill's music is still very much alive. It more practical for producers to alter the will be protected. piece to fit the institution. Coincidentally this "revisionism" has been condoned by There is a definitive text those who are uncomfortable with the real for each of the two Mahagom1y for very different reasons. On Mahagonnys . .. that sets the musical side. conservatives like critic Harold Schonberg wish it could be turned the boundaries for the con­ into another ThreeJxmny Opera and tllereby struction of the city.

K U RT WEILL N EWS L E TTER PAGE 6 I REMEMBER The First Scandal of Lenya's Career by Lys Symonette The scene in question is famous: the papier-mache head dangled merrily at Knights of the Holy Grail are gathered the other end. As yet unaware of the ., In each issue of the Newsletter, we will before their ailing King Amfortas, who situation, she held up the shroud (along feature an excerpt from our Oral History steadfastly refuses to administer his with the appendage!) for the allotted interviews. For the first column in this sacred duty of unveiling the Holy Grail. amount of time. Only as she was about series, Lys Symonette, the Foundation's In front of Amfortas stands an open to drop it again did she become aware Musical Executive, retells one of Lenya's coffin containing the mortal remains of of its heaviness. In terror, she loosened favorite reminiscences. · his father Titurel. The old King's body her grip and the bearded head fell down -Ed. is fully covered by a white shroud. At a with a thud. Not in the coffin, but While impressions and influences certain dramatic moment in the music a smack onto the floor. Once there, during their young years were oceans page boy (Blamauer) has to draw back Titurel's bead started an action all of its apart, Lenya and Weill shared one ear­ the shroud enough to let Amfortas see own: ever so slowly it started to roll and ly cultural experience: a heavy dose of his dear father's face. For a few fright­ roll and roll-gaining speed with every Wagnerian indoctrination. This is easi­ ening moments the page has to hold up turn-finally making its royal exit right ly understood in Weill's case, having the shroud, then drop it ever so slowly into the prompter's box. been born in Dessau, 'The Bayreuth of and carefully to cover the King again. What a Scandal! the North.' But Lenya? All through rehearsals Blamauer had But for Blamauer the worst was yet It so happened that she started her done this piece of stage business to per­ to come. The morning after the professional career at the Stadttheater fection. Then came the event of the disaster she was called into the Direc­ in Zurich, an institution with which premiere. Totally caught up with the tor's office. There she was told that she Wagner himself had held close per­ general heroics, with everyone's atten­ had to pay a fine of 50 Swiss Francs (an sonal ties. As Karoline Blamauer she tion focused on her for the first time in entire month's salary)! Insisting it was joined this theatre's Corps de Ballet, her career, Karoline decided to take ad­ no fault of hers but that of a careless first as an apprentice and then as a full vantage of this unique opportunity in prop man who failed to secure Titurel's fledged member. true Wagnerian style. At the crucial head sufficiently, the tale of her mis­ It was then-as it is now-the custom musical cue she grabbed the lily-white fortune fell upon deaf ears. Irrevocably of all German speaking Stadttheaters shroud with such dramatic passion that every month a part of the fine was de­ to use members of the Corps de Ballet Titurel's royal beard got caught in her ducted from her meager salary, w1til as extras whenever the occasion called iron grip. Thus-when she lifted the the entire 50 Francs had been paid off. for it. Consequently young Blamauer shroud as high as possible-she un­ Lenya always felt that this fine was a frequently had to put away her ballet knowingly clasped the old man's beard far greater scandal than the one she slippers in order to change into the dis­ firmly in her fist, while the King's had created! guise of a Nibelungen dwarf, hauling gold from the depths of the Rhine, or­ as a page boy-carry the train of the trailing gowns of a long line of Wagner­ ian heroines, be it Elsa, Eva, Elisabeth or Bruennhilde- either role necessi­ Lotte Lenya in Zurich: tating a long and patient presence dur­ ing endless stretches of music. (Lenya En pointe and en route once sang the entire 'Elsa's Dream' for to stardom. Gottfried Wagner, the composer's great-grandson, who remarked that he never heard it sung so innocently and simply). It did not take long for her superiors at the Stadttheater to discover Karoline's innate musicality. Always it was she who knew the exact musical moment when certain steps or move­ ments had to coincide with the music. She could always be relied upon to give the correct cue to the other extras. The highlight of the theatre's 1913-14 season was Zurich's premiere perfor­ mance of Parsi/al, and it was therefore decided that Blamauer was the only page boy with whom to entrust an im­ portant piece of the stage action.

KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER PAGE 7 I FROM THE ARCHIVE Kurt Weill and New Eve Hammerschmidt Collection Music Theatre

by Eric Salzman

Wagner once said, "Having created the by David Fameth invisible orchestra, I now feel like inventing the invisible theatre. And the inaudible or· Eve Hammerschmidt, the daughter Inventory of the Eve Hammerschmidt chestra." of-Weill's sister Ruth, donated a valu­ Collection One cannot imagine Mozart making such a statement. Or Verdi or Weill. able collection of early documents to Musical Manuscripts the Foundation in April, 1979. Ruth Wagner actually managed to inoculate Three Fragments of Sulamith, cantata Weill, born one year after Kurt in 1901, opera with the virus of Central European for soprano, female chorus, and or­ philoso_phic idealism. The image in the corn· and her husband, Leo Sohn, emigrated chestra, 1920. poser's head is the real music. Any actual from Germany to Palestine and subse­ Fragment of Psalm VIIL six-partacap­ performance is only an approximation, even quently to the United States. Mrs. pella chorus, 1922? a degradation, of the original, pure idea. A Hammerschmidt is responsible for few chosen perlormers can serve as priests preserving the two musical manuscript Correspondence to this religion; the rest are only fit to be ser­ sketches, 17 pieces of correspondence Kurt Weill to Ruth Weill Sohn vants or cogs in the machinery. Works of and three miscellaneous items. The Lildenscheid, 16 January 1920, post­ art, even operas, are fit only if they $trive, music includes the only extant auto­ card without concession, toward the ideal. graphs of two early works which David Ludenscheid, 28 January 1920, 2 pp., Such a view of art has, of course, a class Drew has identified as: Sulamith, a can­ incomplete basis. It is art for connoisseurs, for an elite. It has come to dominate our classical music­ tata for soprano, female chorus, and or­ Firenze, 8 March 1924, 8 pp., corn· al life almost entirely. It is eid:raordinary chestra (8pp.), probably composed in plete how this idealism has established itself even Leipzig in 1920; and Psalm Vlll a work 2 April 1926, 2 pp., complete in the theater. It is present in the operas and for s ix-par t a cappella chorus Undated, 2 pp., complete music theater works of Schonberg and (SSATTB) (1 pp.), probably composed Berlin, undated, 4 pp., complete Berg, of Henze and Stockhausen, even of in Berlin in 1922. The 17 pieces of cor­ Undated, 2 pp., complete Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson. respondence include ten items from Undated, 4 pp., complete In fact, idealism is very difficult to main· Kurt to Ruth (1920-1926 and undated), Undated, 2 pp., incomplete tain in the rough-and-tumble of a living four letters from Weill to his parents Undated, 2 pp., incomplete theatre. Its effect has meant, by and large, the dying off of grand opera as a living art. (1920 (2], 1924, 1945), a postcard from Kurt Weill to Parents Of course music theatre did not die. It has Nathan (Kurt's eldest brother) to t heir Berlin, 29 November 1920, postcard survived and even flourished in its popular father and a postcard from "Aron" forms: the musical play, the operetta, the (possibly Aron Hirsh, a family friend) Berlin, 10 December 1920, postcard Davos, 27 November 1924, postcard musical comedy. Popular music theatre pre­ to Albert (Kurt's father). serves the old, conventional, closed forms Los Angeles, 30 April 1945, 2 pp., and the folk melos-pentatonic, modal or The correspondence sheds light on complete diatonic singing expressing points of view many of Weill's early experiences such Kurt Weill to Leo Sohn about emotional issues and states or about as his relationship with and devotion to Undated, postcard people, events and situations. In these mu­ Busoni and his tenure as Kapellmeister sical plays, the musical numbers stop the ac­ at the Stadttheater in Liidenscheid. In a Nathan Weill to Albert Weill tion for reflection or commentary. Music letter from Florence, the 24-year-old Frankfurt, 3 J uly 1914, postcard theatre of this type is messy, stylistically composer describes in wonderful detail and aesthetically impure. It is a mixture of "Aron" to Albert Weill elements taken from lower class and folk his first impressions of the beauty and 26 July 1904, postcard culture of Italy. In a 1945 letter to his sources which are then tarted up with art parents, he discusses his reaction to the Miscellaneous values and techniques and then exploited for sentimental and comic entertainment. As critical response to Firebrand of Flo­ Handwritten class schedule, adoles­ cent studies with the operas of the sixte~th and seven­ rence, relates progress on the One teenth centuries, there is often no score at Touch of Venus film, and synopsizes his Handwritten class schedule, pre­ all, no idealized total picture but merely a feelings about World War II and Ger­ sumably for his first semester at the series of sketches, arrangements and rear­ many. Completing the collection are Hochschule filr Musik, 1918 rangements which may even be reworked, two school schedules which give re­ Published text by Emma Weill for reordered or replaced according to conven· vealing insights into Weill's musical the hymn, "Niederlandiches Dank­ ience and need. The work has no ideal form training, teachers, and academic gebet" atall; it is merely a series of actual, roughly studies. polished events taking place in the real world.

KURT WEI LL NEWSLETTER PAGE 8 Here then is a neat dialectical situation. ft 1 have suggested the historical dialectic herent. Alas. the improvements of the so­ can be used to describe the historical mo­ that helped b,ing the Brecht-Weill musical called book musical- Rodgers-Hammer­ ment in which Kmt Weill and Bert Brecht theatre into being. Within Weill's music stein, Lerner-Loewe, et al. -tended to take found themselves when they created the there is an internal dialectic tbat comes from out the dialectical and class elements-the anti-Wagnerian, anti-ideal Mahagonny Song­ the use of closed, popular forms together jazz, literally and metaphorically-which spiel for Baden-Baden in 1927. And, with with an on-going participation of the music gave the old musical its distinctive vitality. hardly any change in te1ms, it can be used to in the dramatic action. Weill deliberately What was left was American operetta. describe the situation which is forming a sets style against idea, emotional catch­ While the new music-theatre will take new music theatre-neither opera nor mu­ phrase against verbal expression, musical what it needs from those traditions, the fact sical comedy-today. In both cases, it has impurity against compositional technique. is that new solutions require new problems. been necessary to reject the idealism and ldeas arise from the clashes and discontinu­ These were propounded already by Weill purism of classical esthetics in favor of ities as much as from the verbal or formal ar­ and ms collaborators both in Europe and messy practicality, fun and more than a bit ticulations. No moment is merely suspended America, and they are connected with the of conscious questioning and confusion! or reflective; each musical gesture or form "other" American music theatre, that of This new music-theatre, already fore­ participates in the on-going movement of Gershwin, Virgil Thompson, Blitzstein. shadowed by Weill, Hindemith, Milhaud ideas and developing situations. Bernstein and Sondheim. Tbe essentials and others in the Zeiwper of the 1920s, re­ The importance of the Weillian music have not changed a great deal: closed fonn quires choice on the part of the creators as theatre to the contemporary situation can must be reconciled with action and idea, well as a desire to awaken self-conscious­ hardly be overestimated. If Wagner and stylistic diversity and popular roots with ness in the public. One of the most curious Central European idealism are rejected, coherence, questioning and search with characteristics of modem aesthetic idealism there is an inevitable tendency in America to entertainment and fun, reflection and in­ is that it requires-even demands-naivete look back at the closed fonn, dialogue-and­ timacy with the need to oppose and over­ and a lack of self-consciousness on the part song traditions of our musical theatre. The come passivity. All tbese issues go back to of the artist even as it asks for self-conscious old revue type of popular musical with its in­ Monteverdi and Moza1t, but they have been conuoisseuJ"Ship on the part of the critics teresting synthesis of European art, salon restated most forcefully in our century by and art-consumers. Weill and Brecht, to th,: and theatre music, Yiddish theatre and Kurt Weill and his collaborators, and they contrary, demanded idea and style con­ black music had hybrid vigor; but it only in­ are again the top items on our music theatre sciousness of themselves in order to en­ ti>nded to amuse and was artistically inco- agenda. gender participatory awareness on the part of the public. In fact, they were recapitulat­ ing a histo1ic relationslup between artist and public, a relationship that had become ob­ scured in the anti-intellectual aftermath of NEW PUBLICATIONS romantic idealism and its modernist de­ RECORDINGS scendants. Kleine Dreigroschenrnusik, Canadian Chamber Ensemb1e. CBC SM 5000 label German-American String Quartets, Sequoia String Quartets, Nonesuch Records, scheduled for fall release Tri-Centennial Lyrics by Lerne1: with Kaye Ballard, Billy Taylor, including 7 songs from Love Life; DRG Records MRS-903 (available by at Wayne State mail only from DRGuntil September 1983: DRG Records, 157 Wayne State University sponsored a West 57 Street, New York. New York 10019) Tricentennial Celebration of German Tiyout, with Kw-t Weill and Ira Gershwin singing their songs; Immigration last fall, presenting a DRG Records MRS-904 (available by mail only from DRG un­ number of events in recognition of the til September 1983) German-American experience. A con­ BOOKS cert in September by the orchestra of Gottfried Wagner. We£ll undBrecht: Das Mu.~ik.alische Zeittheater the University of Bonn, Collegium (Miinchen : Kindler, 1977) 338 p.-reprint (Tokyo: Ongaku No Musicum, got things to an early start, Tomo Sha, 1984). and on November 16 began a weekend of activities. His Excellency, Dr. Peter ARTICLES Hermes, West German Ambassador to Elizabeth Farmer. "Kurt Weill" Humanities iv/5 (November, the US, gave an opening address; Dr. 1983) p. 16-17. Marta Feuchtwanger was featured Josef Heinzelrnann. "Weill kommt postum zu seinem Recht" speaker at the Symposium on the Con­ Neue Zeitschrift /ltr Musik (2 February 1984) p. 38-39. tributjon of German/Austrian Women Horst Koegler. "Von Kudamm nach Yale" Stuttgarler Zeitung to America; the Detroit Tnstitute of the 262 (12 November 1983) Arts extended ··An Alie Kuenstler,'' its John Rockwell. " Posterity Weighs Kurt Weill's Stature" New German Expressionism exhibit; and York Times (13 November 1983) p. C 1. Phil Marcus Esser presented a cabaret­ Edward Rothstein. "The Subject Is Kurt Weill" New York style revue of the songs of Kurt Weill, Times (16 October 1983) · dedicated to the memory of Lotte TV/FILMS Lenya. The Celebration was coor­ dinated by Foundation Trustee Guy Seven Deadly Sins, BBC-2, aired 19 November 1983, Elise Ross; Stern and Uwe Faulhaber, with events Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle, conductor. on campus and tbsoughout Detroit. Berl-in Rf!,{Juiem. BBC-2, aired 25 November 1983, The Ballet Rambert; Christopher Bruce, choreographer

KU RT WE ILL NEWSL E T TER PAGE 9