Volume 15

Number 2 topical Weill Fall 1997

A supplement to the Newsletter es&events news & Mark your calendars—18 October 1998 is Lenya’s 100th Birthday! events news & Publications CD features the legendary Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch of Cologne will publish recordings that Lenya the German edition of (When You Speak made for Philips in Ham- Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and in the burg in 1955 and 1956, and fall of 1998. Entrusted to editors and translators Kim the booklet includes never- H. Kowalke and Lys Symonette by Lenya on her before-published photos of deathbed in 1981, these letters are testimonies to one of the recording sessions. the century’s most legendary artistic partnerships. The Lenya’s performances are German version contains minor revisions along with indeed “masterworks” and some new material. continue to be held up by The University of California Press gets a head start music critics as bench- on the centenary by reissuing the English version of marks of Weill interpreta- Speak Low in a paperback edition this month. Critics tion. from around the world praised the 1996 hardcover edi- tion as an outstanding achievement. Events Overlook Press will publish Lenya the Legend: A Pic- The New York-based torial Autobiography in the summer of 1998, an illustrat- American Foundation for ed narrative of Lenya’s life, told in her own words, AIDS Research (AmFAR) assembled entirely from interviews, correspondence, will be the beneficiary of autobiographical notes, and other writings. Compiled an all-star Broadway gala and edited by David Farneth, director of the Weill-Lenya tribute to Lenya on 18 Research Center, the book features nearly 350 photos October 1998 at the Majes- (300 black-and-white and 50 color) showing Lenya’s tic Theatre. The list of chameleon-like transformation throughout six decades guest performers will of public appearances, including stage and movie roles, include representatives recording sessions, concert appearances, and awards pre- from theater, film, classical sentations. Also included are publicity photos, photos of music, jazz, and popular informal gatherings with friends, record covers, and doc- music. Stars and enter- uments relating to her life and career. Farneth remarks, tainment professionals who “Compiling this book was like putting a jigsaw puzzle collaborated with Lenya together without knowing in advance what the final pic- will also speak at the event. ture would be. The most exciting thing for the reader— Other stage perfor- apart from the visual element, which is rich and hum- mances, a film series, and bling in its scope—is having the opportunity to get perhaps a symposium are Lenya rehearsing at Lewisohn Sta- currently in the planning dium, New York City, 1958. She inside Lenya’s thought processes, to separate the manu- recalled: “Lewisohn Stadium — factured public persona from the true, private, complex, stage. The film series will such a frightening place. Soooo and sometimes frustrating personality.” The book also include selections from big! At the first rehearsal I felt like includes the most complete chronology of Lenya’s career Lenya’s feature films (The the last of the Christians being compiled to date, including newly discovered facts about Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone thrown to the tigers. But then at her early career and free-wheeling life in Zurich between with Vivien Leigh and War- night, when the spotlight hits you, ren Beatty (1961), From the vastness of the stadium disap- 1913 and 1921. pears. Then it’s only you and the Russia with Love with Sean microphone.” Recordings Connery (1964), The There’s no need to wait until Appointment with Omar 1998 to start collecting Lenya Sharif (1969)), television appearances (Mutter centenary memorabilia. Sony Courage in Recklinghausen (1965), Ten Blocks on the is releasing a new Lenya CD Camino Real by Tennessee Williams (1966), Trio for featuring digitally remastered Lovers (1974)), and as well as the G.W. Pabst film of recordings of Weill’s German Die Dreigroschenoper, television documentaries, and theater songs and Die sieben video interviews. Todsünden. The CD will be available in U.S. stores on 9 Lenya centenary events will be updated December 1997 and perhaps a monthly on the Foundation’s website few weeks earlier in Europe. (http://www.kwf.org). Part of Sony’s new “Master- Cover of the new Sony “Masterworks works Heritage Series,” the Heritage Series” Lenya CD. 2 news & events a Bertolt Brecht turns100on10FebruaryBertolt 1998 exhibit drawn fromitstheater collections, raries. andhiscontempo- Brecht focusing on posters theater international andexhibition exhibition of • travelingburg separate arepreparing exhibitions. Augs- andthecityof Goethe InstituteinMunich Unterhaltungstheater Brechts hisworks. to illustrate thegenesisof andarchivalbooks inBrecht’s library documents exhibition catalogue. The exhibition willuse 25 January–29 1998,accompaniedby March an mein Werk istderAbgesang desJahrtausends Künste Berlin,willmountanexhibition, • Exhibitions edited by Marc Silberman. • politics, film on andBrecht andradio. theater andtheory,on and art on Brecht Brecht’s writings anthologiesof including volumes toBrecht’s works inEnglish, • dence between andHelene Brecht Weigel. Ausgabe ty-volume thethir- Erdmut Wizisla; of thecompletion editedby Dr. library Brecht’s personal by Hans-Peter Neureuther;acatalogue of Werner (2vols.); Hecht • Publications brecht). (http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/german/ Societywebsite Brecht tional SeealsotheInterna- thehighlights. of Brecht’s centenary. Below isasummary arly societiesareplanningtocelebrate publishers, stations, television andschol- Theaters, museums, film companies, for 1998,producedby Top Story, Babelsberg. Jutta feature Brückner’s film Brecht on Sachen,” Liebe, Revolution undanderegefährliche 1997–February 1998(3SAT). works, features, andbiographical December productions, films important his basedon of material, documentaries Brecht including tive of Rundfunk).deutscher (West- Film-Produktionsgesellschaft inghoff Pohl, directedby Jan producedby Schütte) Beit- • be shown on ARTE (Süddeutscher Rundfunk). • Television andFilm throughout theyear. Haus, Berlin,isplanningnumerous events Tage imBrecht- 1998”);theLiteraturforum 100 Jahre Brecht”). Bertolt Milan(“Poesiecussing Brecht”); undPolitik: und Post-Modernismus”). imPost-Sozialismus Brecht und Vorblick auf Jahrhundert?”). Brechts 100 Jahre Brecht— Germanistentreffen: Society). (10 for: areorganized Conferences Conferences Brecht-Lexikon Beh:DrDctrudsi arudr”will undseinJahrhundert” DerDichter “Brecht: A three-part television film television A three-part (screenplay by Klaus The Poster MuseuminBayreuth isplanningan Brecht 100.EinArbeitsbuch /ASourcebook Methuen in London willadd several newMethuen inLondon Suhrkamp Verlag: The Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv, Akademie der th Symposium of the International Brecht theInternational Symposium of • fBrecht’s works; thecorrespon- of • The Berlin Museum will sponsor an The BerlinMuseumwillsponsor Johannesburg (“IV. Johannesburger Große BerlinerundFrankfurter by Jürgen Hillesheim. • Chronik zuBrecht An extensive retrospec- • Brecht inFinnland Seoul (“Rückblick • . • ” • Berlin (“Brecht- “Bertolt Brecht: “Bertolt Dublin (“Dis- • • Augsburger San Diego “. .und from ” • “ The Das by oue1,Nme T Volume 15, Number2 City College,SanFrancisco, California Wilma Theater, Philadelphia,Pennsylvania New York Niagara Falls MusicTheatre, Niagara Falls, New York, New York Columbia University, SchooloftheArts, consin Skylight Theater, Milwaukee, Wis- Carolina Hill, North Playmakers Company, Repertory Chapel nia Lehigh University, Bethlehem,Pennsylva- UNITED STATES Worcester College,6 Broomfield School,London CollegePerformersHaileybury UNITED KINGDOM Gymnasium, Biel SWITZERLAND Stadtstheate SWEDEN Teatrul Odeon,Bucharest ROMANIA Teatr Polski, Warsaw POLAND Kaunas StateAcademic Drama Theatre LITHUANIA Latvijas Dailes Teatris, Riga LATVIA Schauspielhaus, Wuppertal Mitteldeutsches Landestheater, Landesbühne Wilhelmshaven Staatstheater Stuttgart Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Residenztheater, München Münchner Volkstheater Theater derLandeshauptstadt, Theater Lüneburg Theater derStadtKoblenz Thalia Theater, Hamburg Die Katakombe Frankfurt Theater Essen Landestheater Detmold Anhaltisches TheaterDessau Städtische TheaterChemnitz Bremer Theater Deutsches Theater, Berlin Westfälische Kammerspiele, Paderborn GERMANY Town Theater, Tallinn ESTONIA Chinese Youth Theater, Art Beijing CHINA Tiroler Landestheater, Innsbruck AUSTRIA ( C A D D P Wittenberg Schwerin Magdeburg o n r i i o l e e n l e f

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r r it an international hitforit aninternational decades.” tering witandunforgettable scorehave made thoroughly modernmasterpiece, whose blis- this of stage “afresh,audaciousinterpretation Philadelphia. DirectorBlankaZizkahopesto ber 1997at thenew Wilma Theater in 3Decem- theanniversary openson celebrate tries. coun- lish-speaking andGerman-speaking inEng- andamateur productions professional andPoland,Estonia, tonumerous inaddition inChina,Latvia,are scheduled Lithuania, theatrical piecesintheworld. Performances themostpopular of andremainsone season brates its70 31 Berlin audienceson August 1928,cele- Die Dreigroschenoper Dreigroschenoper Die [email protected]. and a ture, studies. andcultural For information further theater history, music history, comparative litera- studies, fromfieldsers drama, asGerman such teach- isintendedfor undergraduate The program take placefrom8June to17July 1998inBerlin. will Wisconsin, Madison), (University of berman Carolina-Chapel Hill)andMarcSil- North ty of seminar co-directedby Mews Siegfried (Universi- asix-week Brecht: “Bertolt The Berlin Years,” NEH SummerSeminarforCollegeTeachers 1930 premiere of Two sketches by VladimirandGeorgii Stenberg, forthe Photo: ©1997. TheMuseumofModernArt. inNew YorkMuseum ofModernArt earlierthisyear. Moscow Kamerny Theater, were exhibited atthe n fthefirst intheU.S. productions to One of pplication materials,pplication contact th birthday duringthe1998-1999 Die Dreigroschenoper Die , which first stunned opical W turns 70 eill at the dsca- Topical Weill Volume 15, Number 2 3a

Two Annas Tour the World Die Bürgschaft Set for Bielefeld Revival events news & Jonathan Eaton will direct a new production 1997 is the year for numerous stage pro- of Die Bürgschaft at the Bühnen der Stadt ductions of Die sieben Todsünden, a work Bielefeld, opening on 26 April 1998, with six which Lenya rescued from obscurity additional performances through 23 June. during the Weill renaissance in the The three-act by theatrical designer 1950s. Following the New York City Caspar Neher (with assistance from Weill) recounts the corruption of money and power Opera staging in March, directed by in the mythical country of Urb. Anne Bogart, Seven Deadly Sins also Die Bürgschaft premiered at the Städtis- appeared in programs in the United che Oper in Berlin in 1932 and was not Kingdom and Italy. The BBC Proms Sketch by Caspar Neher (1932) revived until 1957, again in Berlin, in a mod- presented Die sieben Todsünden in the ified version by Neher and Carl Ebert, the original German on 3 August at the director of the premiere. The staging of this opera will com- Royal Albert Hall (see review mand the largest budget in Bielefeld’s history. Chief dra- on page 19). In Italy, Musica maturg Dr. Alexander Gruber played a leading role in initi- Nel Chiostro presented I ating and promoting the production. Sette Peccati Capitali (trans- lation by Fedele D’Amico, revised by Adam Pollock) at Enters German Repertory the Batignano Festival 1997 Regarded by Weill as his first “American opera,” Street in mid-August; the cloister of Scene (1947) has enjoyed increased popularity in Ger- a seventeenth-century many in the past two seasons, ever since the internation- monastery made a fitting al coproduction among Houston Grand Opera, Theater venue for this morality- im Pfalzbau Ludwigshafen, and Theater des Westens themed work. Berlin brought the work there in the winter of 1994-95. The New Israeli Opera The Städtische Bühnen Freiburg presented it to great will present Die sieben Tod- acclaim in its 1996-97 season, and Landestheater sünden between 15 and 22 Altenburg/Bühnen der Stadt Gera currently share a new December at the Tel Aviv production which will run until June 1999. (See the review on p. 17.) Performing Arts Center. Both Freiburg and Alten- Sharing a bill with Der Kaiser burg-Gera will continue a long tradition von Atlantis by Viktor Ull- of producing Weill’s works. The Theater mann, the production origi- Anja Silja as Anna I nated at the Théâtre Royale im Park Freiburg hosts a new production in Brussels (1996) of on 1 November (directed de la Monnaie in Brussels in by Peter Gruber, conducted by Patrik 1996, directed by Sabine Hart- Ringborg) before the production moves mannshenn with sets designed by Betti- to the Großes Haus of the Städtische na Neuhaus. Anja Silja will star as Anna Bühnen on 15 February 1998. I, and Mendi Rodan will conduct. Ms. Altenburg-Gera has scheduled a double Die sieben Todsün- bill for next season of Die sieben Todsün- Silja will also perform den and Mahagonny Songspiel, which will den in concert at Stuttgart’s Liederhalle open in June 1998. The theater present- with the Stuttgart Staatsorchester under ed Der Silbersee in 1984–85 and Die the baton of Lothar Zagrosek on 16 and Dreigroschenoper in 1990–91. 17 November.

Poster Design for Street Scene (1946)

“Transatlantik” Concert a Resounding Success in Bochum On 25 September, the Bochum Symphony paid homage to Kurt times the ‘serious’ symphony orchestra became a huge dixieland Weill by presenting a full-evening orchestral concert of his songs band, played swinging jazz, and performed boisterous dances written for the musical theater. Programmed as the inaugural with incisive rhythms,” wrote Anne Ullenboom of the West- evening of conductor Steven Sloane’s “Transatlantik” series (25 deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. According to another report, September–10 October), the Weill repertoire ranged from Sloane himself took the encore, singing the first verse of “Mori- Mahagonny Songspiel (1927) to (1949). Singers tat vom Mackie Messer” to thunderous applause. Ann Crumb, Dawn Marie Flynn, Natascha Petrinski and Concert performances of Weill’s songs have become popular Michael Scarborough negotiated the tricky stylistic and charac- features of orchestral programs in recent seasons. Among the ter changes. most often performed songs in United States pops programs are The German press hailed the concert as a testament to the “I’m A Stranger Here Myself ” and “Speak Low” from One merging of two worlds—America and Europe. “At various Touch of Venus, and “” from . 4a Volume 15, NumberVolume 14,2 Number 1 Topical Weill

Upcoming Events

Calendar November 13 Symphony No. 2. Birmingham Conservatory Sinfonia, Birmingham, England. 14–30 Berlin to Broadway. College of the Desert, Palm Desert, California. 14, 15 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik. Brass & Co., Amstetten/Mistelbach, Austria. 15–22 Berlin to Broadway. Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 15 Die Dreigroschenoper. Queensland Philharmonic, West End, Australia. 16 Songs. Catherine Malfitano, Alice Tully Hall, New York, New York. 16, 17 Die sieben Todsünden. Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany. 19 . The Association, London, England. 22 Der neue Orpheus. Anhaltisches Theater, Dessau, Germany. 23–30 Songs. Canadian Opera Company, Toronto, Canada. 27–30 Der Silbersee. Winterthur, Switzerland. 28 . Musikschule, Herrenberg, Germany. 28, 29 Der Jasager. Alte Turnhalle, Hamburg, Germany. December 4 Suite panaméenne, Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg, Austria. 6, 7 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik. Rotterdam Philharmonic, De Doelen-Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 7 Öl-Musik. Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 10 . Woodhouse College, London, England. Selected as a 1996 "Notable Book of the Year" 15–22 Die sieben Todsünden. New Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv, Israel. (New York Times) and a 1996 "Book of the 30 Dec–25 Jan Berlin to Broadway. Coconut Grove Playhouse, Coconut Grove, Florida. Year" (Financial Times), Speak Low (When You Speak Love) was runner-up for the 1997 1998 George Freedley Memorial Award of the The- atre Library Association. The paperback edi- January tion ($24.95) will be published in late Novem- 5 Songs. Auditorio Manuel de Falla, Granada, Spain. ber. 3–5 Suite from Die Dreigroschenoper, Songs. Brabants Orchestra, Amsterdam, The Nether- lands. IN REPERTORY 1997–98 9 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik, Vom Tod im Wald. Ebony Band, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. AUFSTIEG UND FALL DER February STADT MAHAGONNY 2–26 Kleine Dreigroschenmusik. Sjaellands Symphony Orchestra, Dianalund/Ishoj/Kastrupvej/Copen- FRANCE hagen, Denmark. Lille (Opéra de Lille); Nantes (Opéra de Nantes); 9 Das Berliner Requiem. Park-West Chamber Society, New York, New York.

news &news events Paris (Opéra Bastille) 18 Feb, 1 March Der Silbersee. Anhaltisches Theater, Dessau, Germany. SWITZERLAND 19 , excerpts. New York Festival of Song, New York, New York. Lausanne (Opéra de Lau- 26–28 . Kent Place School, New Jersey. sanne) 27 Happy End. Kurt Weill Fest, Dessau, Germany. GERMANY Bielefeld (Theater der March Stadt Bielefeld) 4 Der neue Orpheus. Anhaltisches Theater, Dessau, Germany. DIE SIEBEN TODSÜNDEN/ 8 Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. Duisburger Symphony, Duisburg, Germany. MAHAGONNY SONGSPIEL 14 One Touch of Venus, Lady in the Dark (excerpts). National Chorale, New York, New York. GERMANY Altenburg-Gera April (Landestheater 2–26 Berlin to Broadway. Foothills Theatre Company, Worcester, Massachusetts. Altenburg/Bühnen der 12 Apr–7 June Symphony No. 2 (Ballet). Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin, Germany. Stadt Gera) 23 Apr–23 June Lady in the Dark. American Century Theater, Arlington, Virginia. DER SILBERSEE GERMANY April Freiburg (Städtische Bühne Freiburg) Opening Night Performance26 Die Bürgschaft. Theater der Stadt, Bielefeld, Germany. STREET SCENE May GERMANY 1, 2 Suite from Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and other songs. Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Altenburg-Gera (Lan- destheater Spain. Altenburg/Bühnen der 28 Propheten. (concert version of The Eternal Road, Act IV). ORF Orchestra, Vienna, Austria. Stadt Gera) July * For repertory listing of 22 Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. Salzburg Festival, Austria. Die Dreigroschenoper / Opening Night Performance TheThreepenny Opera, see page 2a. August 30 Propheten. BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC Proms), London, England. Topical Weill Volume 15, Number 2 5a “Palestine is like fresh air after Europe” (1947):

Weill and the 50th Anniversary of Israel events news &

Kurt Weill did not travel to Palestine until and as a reunion with his aging parents, whom 1947, but a steady stream of compositions from he had not seen for fourteen years. the mid-1930s onward shows a commitment to The music community there welcomed promoting Jewish history and culture. Weill with open arms: the press interviewed He set Two Folksongs of the New Palestine him about the prospects of a national Jewish (1938), the Kiddush (1946), and worked close- music and the Palestine Symphony Orchestra ly with Ben Hecht on a series of pageants: Fun greeted him with a standing ovation. Weill was to be Free (1941), We Will Never Die (1943), and also received by the Mayor of Tel Aviv and vis- A Flag is Born (1946). Weill traveled by way of ited Dr. Chaim Weizmann at his home. In a Europe in 1947, so the trip represented the letter to Lenya dated 4 June 1947, he wrote: only time he visited Palestine or Europe before “The last days in Palestine were very strenuous his untimely death in 1950. He intended the and, of course, the last hours with the parents trip as a vacation from the pressures of Broad- quite difficult because they were so brave and way (Street Scene had opened earlier that year) Weill addressing the Palestine tried not to show anything.” Symphony Orchestra

Hatikvah Arrangement Now Available After his return to New York from Palestine, Weill received a last-minute commission from the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science to orchestrate the Israeli Nation- al Anthem. Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra first performed Hatikvah at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on 25 November 1947, at a special concert following a dinner for 2,000 people to honor Chaim Weizmann’s contributions to world science and Jewish aspirations for a national home. The New York Times led its coverage of the event by reporting, “A testi- monial dinner to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, world Zionist leader, made a swift transition last night into something of a political rally to make him the first President of the proposed new Jewish state in Palestine. . . . The dinner was the type of tribute reserved for few mortals, including as it did a special concert played in his honor by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. . . . Never in its history had the Boston Symphony, for which special arrangements had to be made in the Waldorf’s Grand Ballroom, paid so spectacular a tribute to a single individual.” After open- ing the concert with “The Star-Spangled Banner” and Weill’s “Hatikvah,” the orchestra played Mendelssohn’s Fourth Sym- phony, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, and his Third Symphony. Newly engraved performing materials for Weill’s Hatikvah are now available through Weill’s publisher, European American Music Corporation, prepared in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel.

Music from Der Weg der Verheissung Premieres in Vienna and London Der Weg der Verheissung (1935), a biblical drama in four parts by Kurt Weill and his parents reading the souvenir program of Street Scene Franz Werfel that premiered in an English version as The Eternal Road in 1937 with Max Reinhardt as director, is Weill’s most ambitious work on Jewish themes. A concert version of Act IV, Foundation donates Weill scores to The titled Propheten and prepared by David Drew and Noam Sheriff, Broadway Musical Project in Tel Aviv will premiere in Vienna with the Austrian Radio Symphony The Foundation is happy to announce its donation of Weill Orchestra on 28 May 1998, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. scores and libretti to the Broadway Musical Project of the Another concert performance is scheduled for 30 August 1998 by Tel Aviv University. Now in its second year of existence, the BBC for its Proms season, with Andrew Davis conducting. the Project brings together American musical theater pro- Much of the fourth-act music was cut from the original produc- fessionals with professional Israeli actors for training in tion. Currently, numerous plans are under development for per- the skills and techniques of Broadway musical theater. Its formances in Europe, North America, and Israel of the entire library is the first reference center for Broadway musicals work in both fully staged and concert performances. in the Middle East. 6a Volume 15, NumberVolume 214, Number 1 Topical Weill

Foundation News

Taruskin Wins Kurt Weill Prize Foundation Prepares Materials for 2000

The second Kurt Weill Prize for distin- With the approach of the year underway on several critical edi- guished scholarship in music theater goes 2000 and its myriad celebrations, tions of lesser known works, led to Richard Taruskin’s two-volume study, there will be a dramatically by the Broadway operetta The Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A increased demand for scores and Firebrand of Florence. performance materials of many of Beyond the bounds of work on Biography of the Works Through Mavra Weill’s works. The staff of the the Weill Edition, another current (University of California Press, 1996). Weill Foundation is actively project is the preparation of per- Taruskin will receive a cash award of engaged in a number of projects to formance materials for Der Weg $2,500. Kurt Weill Prize panelists (con- meet this demand, with regard to der Verheissung (English title, The sisting of members of the American Musi- both the familiar staples of Weill’s Eternal Road). Interest in reviv- oeuvre and the more rarely per- ing this epic work, produced only cological Society, Modern Language Asso- formed. once in the 1930s in New York, has ciation, and American Society for Theatre One example of the efforts on been increasing steadily over the Research) selected two other finalists for behalf of the former is the new last several years. More than a special recognition: the Bear Family critical edition of Die Drei- dozen producers and presenters Records 1996 issue of Friedrich Hollaender: groschenoper to be published as now seriously contemplate pro- part of the Kurt Weill Edition. ductions as part of celebrations of Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte, a multi- With preparations now in high the millennium and of the hun- media project coordinated by Dr. Viktor gear, this volume is projected to dredth anniversary of Weill's Rotthaler and Richard Weize, and Linda appear some time in late 1998 in birth. The Foundation is devoting and Michael Hutcheon’s Opera: Desire, Dis- conjunction with celebrations of considerable time and effort to ease, Death, an interdisciplinary study of Lotte Lenya’s and Bertolt Brecht’s ensure that accurate and authori- centenaries as well as the seventi- tative scores and parts are avail- the interrelationships between opera, love, eth anniversary of the work’s pre- able, thus promoting the highest sexual desire, illness, and death, published miere at the Schiffbauerdamm musical standards possible for by the University of Nebraska Press, 1996. Theater. Production is also these performances.

William Bolcom: An Early Grant Recipient

When Lotte Lenya established the Kurt interests to Weill in theater and in music, my wife Joan Morris. . . . The Weill- Weill Foundation in 1962, she made assist- and so he recommended me.” Brecht songs are dirty, gritty, and tough.” ing composers and educational institu- Bolcom, who is now finishing View Bolcom is also intrigued by Weill’s con- news &news events tions a high priority. The roster of grant from the Bridge—an opera commissioned ception of musical theater, specifically recipients in those early days by the Lyric Opera of the need for performers to take acting as included Stefan Wolpe and Chicago for an October seriously as singing; a prime example is William Bolcom. In a recent 1999 premiere—began Malfitano, whom he admires. “The telephone conversation with performing Weill in his Lyric Opera’s Center for American grant administrator Joanna student days. “I like Artists is now training young singers to Lee, Bolcom recalled the everything by Weill. Even cross the boundary between opera and circumstances under which while at Stanford I was musical theater. So, Weill was a pioneer he received $1,000 from the involved in a college pro- of his time.” Foundation. “I was in Paris duction of The Threepenny The Foundation has commited its as a student in the early Opera, as part of the resources to supporting research and 1960s, and it was through William Bolcom. Photo: Pach Bros. directing team. In 1968, I performances of Weill’s works since the Darius Milhaud, a good accompanied Martha adoption of new guidelines in 1983. To friend of Lenya, that I received the grant. Schlamme at Circle in the Square. I date, a total of 147 grants have been In those days, $1,000 was a significant accompanied Catherine Malfitano at the awarded, funding a total of 70 profes- scholarship. After all, rent cost only $15 Guggenheim Museum last April in an sional performances, 35 college/univer- per month, and one could live quite com- hour-long program of Weill songs (with sity productions, 37 research projects, fortably with $60! Milhaud recognized in Brecht lyrics) celebrating the Salzburg and 5 special publications on Kurt Weill me a young musician who had similar Festival. I also perform these songs with and Lotte Lenya. REMINDER: Guidelines and forms for the Foundation's annual grant program, along with lists of previous grant recipients, are available and can be printed from the Foundation’s website at http://www.kwf.org. Topical Weill Volume 14, Number Volume 115, Number 2 7a7a Hal Leonard Publishes New Recordings New Songbook es&events news & Kurt Weill: Broadway and • Carole Farley, violinist Michael • London/Decca’s celebrated “Entartete Hollywood, a songbook com- Guttman, and the Rheinische Philhar- Musik: Music Suppressed by the Third piled for piano and voice monie orchestra conducted by José Sere- Reich” series has released a CD featuring ($15.95), collected by Judy brier recently released the premiere violin concertos by Korngold, Weill, and Bell of the Richmond Orga- recording of Der neue Orpheus on ASV Krenek. A co-production with Deutschland nization, recently ap- Records. The recording also includes Radio and ROC GmbH, this recording fea- peared under the Hal Weill’s Violin Concerto and Farley singing tures soloist Chantal Juillet and the Rund- Leonard imprint. The col- selections from Der Silbersee and Street funk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by lection includes numerous Scene. (London 452-481-2). songs that have not appeared in a Weill anthology since the • The Brodsky Quartet just recorded the • The Violin Concerto will appear on anoth- 1975 Kurt Weill in America String Quartet, op. 8, for their newest CD er CD in March 1998, on an EMI release (Chappell) went out-of-print release on Silva Classics (SILKD 6014). with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by years ago (marked below with Also included are Chromatic Fantasy by Mariss Jansons. Violin virtuoso Frank Peter *). Several others appear Dave Brubeck and Stravinsky’s Concertino Zimmermann is the soloist. Also on the (1920). The quartet can also be heard recording are Weill’s Symphony No. 2 and a here for the first time ever in accompanying Elvis Costello in “Lost in the concert suite based on music from Aufstieg a collection (marked with Stars” on the newly released album, “Septem- und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny arranged by **). ber Songs,” by Sony (SK/ST 63046). Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg. Cowboy Song ** The River is Blue Cast Recording of Lady in the Dark made in The River is So Blue ** Abbey Road Studio You and Me The Right Guy for Me ** For four days in mid-July, the cast of the Royal National The- atre’s Lady in the Dark assembled at Abbey Road Studio to How Can You Tell an make a permanent record of their collaboration. This American? ** The One Indispensable Man ** recording is the first to include all of the music in Lady in the Dark in original orchestrations. Produced and distributed by That’s Entertainment Records (TER) in the UK, the CD will Lady in the Dark Girl of the Moment * also be available in the US in the spring of 1998. It’s Never Too Late to Mendelssohn ** Maria Friedman at the Abbey Road Studio. My Ship Photo: Gordon Rainsford One Life to Live * One Touch of Venus (Don’t Look Now, But) My Heart is Showing ** New York Season Highlights My Week ** Weill and the Bard— Speak Low A New Collaboration? 19 October: Eighth Annual Cabaret Convention celebrated That’s Him * Audiences expressed surprise the 50th anniversary of Street Scene at Town Hall. 30 October: The Firebrand of Florence at the opening performance of the Concordia Orchestra under the baton of Marin Alsop per- A Rhyme for Angela * formed Kleine Dreigroschenmusik and the Violin Concerto (soloist There’ll be Life, Love and a new production of Laughter * Shakespeare’s Hamlet at Gregory Fulkerson) at Alice Tully Hall. Entitled “The Devil’s You’re Far Too Near Me * Fiddle,” this concert also featured Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Sol- Stratford upon Avon when the Where Do We Go From Here? gravedigger launched into the dat. 16 November: Catherine Malfitano performs Weill songs in All at Once * refrain of “September Song.” her “Great Performances Series” recital at Alice Tully Hall. 9 If Love Remains * Critical reaction to inclusion February: West-Park Chamber Society performs Das Berliner Street Scene Requiem. 19 February: New York Festival of Song presents Lonely House * of the song has ranged from Moon-Faced, Starry-Eyed * “a stroke of genius” to less “Four on the Aisle” at the 92nd Street Y, including a 25-minute flattering notices. Set in mod- excerpt from Der Kuhhandel. 14 March: The National Chorale pays tribute to Weill, performing excerpts from One Touch of Venus Is It Him or Is It Me? * ern times by director Matthew Mr. Right * and Lady in the Dark in concert at Avery Fisher Hall. Warchus, the production Lost in the Stars moves this season to the Royal Lost in the Stars Weill Choral Arrangements Thousands of Miles * Shakespeare Company theater Andreu Marc Music Publications recently printed two choral arrange- at the Barbican Centre in ments (SATB and piano) of vintage Weill songs. “September Song” Huckleberry Finn and “Lost in the Stars,” both arranged by Margaret Boudreaux, make Apple Jack * London and will travel to the Come in, Mornin’ * Brooklyn Academy of Music ideal repertoire pieces for amateur and professional . Both This Time Next Year * arrangements are available through the Foundation’s book sales pro- next year. gram (see back page). 8a Volume 15, NumberVolume 214, Number 1 Topical Weill

New Publications RECORDINGS BOOKS Lady in the Dark. Risë Stevens, Bindas, Kenneth J. All of This Music Belongs to the Nation: Adolph Green, John Reardon; The WPA’s Federal Music Project and American Society. Lehman Engel, conductor. Sony Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995. Classical Masterworks Heritage MHK 62869. [Reissue; includes Carroll, Brendan G. The Last Prodigy: A Biography of Erich songs from Lady in the Dark per- Wolfgang Korngold. Portland, Oreg.: Amadeus Press, formed by Danny Kaye and con- 1997. ducted by Maurice Abravanel.] Grismer, Kay L. Cheryl Crawford Presents: A History of Her Lady in the Dark. , Broadway Musical Productions, 1936–1949. Ann Arbor, Carleton Carpenter, James Daly, Mich.: UMI, 1993. and Shepperd Strudwick. AEI CD 041. [Reissue of the sound- Mawer, Deborah. Darius Milhaud: Modality and Structure in track from a NBC television pro- Music of the 1920s. Hants, England. and Brookfield, Vt.: duction directed by Max Lieb- Scolar Press, 1997. man and broadcast on 25 Sep- tember 1954; includes “bonus Wöhrle, Dieter. Bertolt Brecht: Die Dreigroschenoper. Frankfurt: Diesterweg, 1996. tracks” of songs sung by Gertrude Lawrence.] Der neue Orpheus, Violin Concerto, Arias. Carole Farley, soprano; Michael ARTICLES Guttman, violin; Rheinische Ferrar, Peter W. “The Gestus in the ‘Ballad of Mac Philharmonie; José Serebrier, the Knife.’” Communications 26, no. 1 (June 1997): conductor. ASV CD DCA 987. 58–61. [Includes two selections from Der Silbersee and two from Street Hauff, Andreas. “Ein Komponist auf Abwegen? Kurt Scene.] Weills Operette Der Kuhhandel.” In Festschrift Christoph-Hellmut Mahling zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. [Songs] Myschtisch, Klaschisch, by Axel Beer, Kristina Pfarr, and Wolfgang Ruf Muschjisch. Georgette Dee, (Mainzer Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 37), vocalist; Terry Truck, piano. 501–16. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1997. Viellieb Rekords 008. [Includes “Nannas Lied” and Heinzelmann, Josef. “Pazifismus oder Defätismus?: “Complainte de la Seine.”] Drei verdrängte Bühnenwerke Kurt Weills aus den ersten Jahren der Emigration 1933–1936.” In [Songs] September Songs: The Music Musik + Dramaturgie: Fritz Hennenberg zum of Kurt Weill. Interpreted by 65.Geburtstag, 51–74. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, PJ 1997. Harvey, Nick Cave, William S. news &news events Burroughs, Betty Carter, Charlie Hinton, Stephen. “Kurt Weill’s ‘Modern Classical Haden, David Johansen, Lotte Art.’” In Die klassizistische Moderne in der Musik Lenya, Mary Margaret O’Hara, des 20. Jahrhunderts: Internationales Symposion der The Persuasions, Teresa Stratas. Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel 1996, hg. von Hermann Sony SK/ST 63046. Danuser, 115–22. Winterthur: Amadeus, 1997. String Quartet, op. 8. Brodsky Rotthaler, Viktor. “Im Ohr: Berlin und Wien: Quartet. Silva Classics SILKD Hollaender & Co. im Exil.” Filmexil 9 (July 1997): 6014. [Includes Brubeck’s 5–17. [Includes reproductions of two letters from Chromatic Fantasy and Weill to , [1933] and 18 March Stravinsky’s Concertino.] 1934.] The Threepenny Opera. Original cast recording, Donmar Warehouse Production, London. English translation by Robert David Macdonald; new lyric transla- tions by Jeremy Sams. Jay Pro- ductions CDJAY 1244. SCORES Kurt Weill: Broadway and Hollywood. Violin Concerto. Chantal Juillet, Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, violin; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorch- [1997]. [28 songs from Weill’s ester Berlin; John Mauceri, con- Broadway shows and Hollywood films. See news article on p. 7a for complete contents.] ductor. Decca/London (Entar- tete Musik series) 452-481-2 “September Song” and “Lost in the Stars.” Arranged for SATB chorus and piano by [Includes violin concertos by Margaret Boudreaux. New York: Andreu Marc Music Publications, 1996. Nos. Korngold and Krenek.] SEC 152 and 153.