NEWS Wide World of Weill ustralian superstar Hugh Jackman, ll-Weill cabaret performances are not he Kurt Weill Fest Dessau has an- star of stage and screen in both mu- unusual, but Tribeca’s Tectonic The- nounced its first season under new sicalA and non-musical roles, recently com- atreA (artistic director: Moisés Kaufman) IntendantT Jan Henric Bogen. The opening pleted his first international arena tour. It held a fundraiser on 7 October that boasted gala (28 February) features tenor Rolando all began on 13 May in Hamburg and ended some high-powered names. With Zachary Villazón in Four Walt Whitman Songs; in Mexico City on 20 October, having tra- Quinto as host, the roster of singers includ- Lenya Competition finalist Danielle Beck- versed Europe, North America, and Ocea- ed Tony Award-winner Annaleigh Ashford, vermit and Artist-in-Residence Vladimir nia for a total of 88 performances. “The Tony nominees Beth Malone and Jennifer Kor neev perform additional songs with the Man. The Music. The Show” is notewor- Damiano, Broadway star Andrew Keenan- Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau under thy not just for Jackman’s star power, but Bolger, tap dancer Caleb Teicher, and more. Thomas Neuhoff. Also featured during the his program as well; the penultimate song Songs included “Je ne t’aime pas,” “Here I'll Fest: Justin Hopkins, Katharine Mehrling, was “Mack the Knife.” Night after night, he Stay,” “Somehow I Never Could Believe,” and Benjamin Schmid as soloist in Weill’s saved the best for next-to-last, delighting and “I'm a Stranger Here Myself” in addi- Violin Concerto. www.kurt-weill-fest.de the crowd with Weill and Brecht’s classic. tion to the usual suspects. Measha Brueggergosman erlin sensation Katharine Mehrling gives two performances of an all-Weill songB evening at the Komische Oper, with Barrie Kosky at the piano, on 8 December 2019 and 19 January 2020. The program, titled “Lonely House: Songs and Chansons by Kurt Weill,” features music composed in France and the U.S. Mehrling's latest New York gig took place at Joe’s Pub on 5 Octo- ber; she sang “Bilbao-Song” along with oth- er popular numbers from the Weimar era. he Wiener Holocaust Library of Lon- PHOTO: VU HIEP PHOTO: don hosted an exhibition of pho- tographsT by Gerty Simon from 30 May oprano Measha Brueggergosman con- through 15 October 2019, drawing on a Stinues to attract audiences with Weill trove of her papers and hundreds of origi- performances. At least once in each of the nal prints donated to the Library in 2016. last three seasons, she has performed Weill Simon took several photographs of Weill songs with the Delian Quartet, with the and Lenya both in Berlin and London— next performance scheduled in Duisburg, where she took up residence after escap- Germany for 15 March 2020. Recently, she ing Nazi Germany—including the most named Weill as a composer who “speak[s] famous image of the two together (above), to me technically and spiritually,” along which was on display. The Library houses with Poulenc, Mahler, Duparc, and Strauss. one of the world’s foremost collections of research material on the Holocaust. wo of Weill’s songs are represented in a new orchestral program titled Prohi- substantial new exhibition tracing bitionT , consisting of music from the 1920s. Weill’s life and work opened on 19 “Alabama-Song” and “Mack the Knife” are OctoberA in his birthplace. The Moholy- both featured in arranged versions, along Nagy House in Dessau, destroyed during with a substantial selection of favorites World War II and recently reconstructed and lesser-known songs from the time. The aúl Juliá, Macheath in The Threepenny in honor of the hundredth anniversary of world premiere took place on 27 Septem- Opera at the New York Shakespeare the founding of the Bauhaus, hosts the per- ber with the Rochester Philharmonic under FestivalR (1976), has been immortalized in manent exhibit, which features a wealth of Jeff Tyzik and three vocal soloists; further a new PBS documentary in the American photos, models, and artifacts, including a dates are scheduled for Spring 2020. Mean- Masters series. Raúl Juliá: The World’s a Weill portrait gallery and extensive audio while, the brand-new Roaring Twenties Stage, directed by Ben DeJesus, premiered samples. From the press release: “Visitors revue Berlin, Berlin will tour major cities on 13 September. A survey of Juliá’s life will encounter an intuitive overview of in Germany from December 2019 through and career, the film devotes a bit over two Weill’s life and work, as well as his influence February 2020, with the world premiere in minutes to his work in Threepenny, with in his own time and on posterity.” Profes- Berlin's Admiralspalast on 17 December. commentary from Kevin Kline and John sor Andreas Eichhorn of the University of The revue incorporates the famous story Leguizamo, still photos, and clips from the Cologne, editor of the Kurt Weill Edition of the last-minute creation of “Mack the cast recording. THIRTEEN Passport mem- volume of Music with Solo Violin, is cura- Knife” and includes a performance com- bers may watch the film online; a DVD is tor; the Weill-Lenya Research Center has plete with barrel organ! also available. provided dozens of photos. Volume 37, Number 2 Kurt Weill Newsletter 19 NEWS Remembering “Hal,” Prince of Broadway Harold Prince, Alfred Uhry, and Erik Liberman before the opening of LoveMusik in (1928-2019) 2007 The legendary producer/director Harold Prince served as a trust- ee of the Kurt Weill Foundation from 1980 to 2005, when he was unanimously elected to lifetime emeritus status. He and I, along with Julius Rudel, Guy Stern, and Henry Marx, joined the Board in September 1980. After a diagnosis of metastatic bladder can- cer, Lenya had recruited us to help plan a future for Weill’s lega- PHOTO: HAROLD PRINCE OFFICE PRINCE HAROLD PHOTO: cy, which she intended to entrust to the hitherto unfunded and largely inactive foundation that had been incorporated in 1962. edly. More often than not, he took my call immediately; when he Fourteen months later, Lenya was near death. Hal visited her couldn’t, he returned it promptly. I remember mentioning once in the hospital and, hoping to lift her spirits, left a cassette player that I had stood in line to buy tickets to one of his productions. and a tape of Chico Buarque’s “O Malandro,” a Portuguese ver- He scolded me: “Just call my office and ask for our house seats.” sion of the “Moritat von Mackie Messer,” the opening cut from We were already well into work with Alfred Uhry on Hal’s vi- the cast album of Buarque’s 1978 Opera do Malandro, “inspired sion for a musical based on the letters of Weill and Lenya in 2005, by” both the Beggar’s and the Threepenny operas. More than a when Hal accepted my standing offer to judge the Lotte Lenya quarter century later, Hal presented those of us who had worked Competition. (I think we came up with the dual-language, com- with him on LoveMusik with a CD containing that same remark- pound title “LoveMusik” as I drove him to Kilbourn Hall, where able rendition of “Mack the Knife” on opening night. By then I he and I did a pre-Finals “Inside the Director’s Studio” interview recognized such a meaningful gesture as typically “Hal.” to a packed house.) Even though he had to leave on a Phantom As Judy Kaye once explained to me, if Hal liked your work, private jet for Las Vegas before the evening round, he spent a he would be loyal to the end. That was certainly true of his de- memorable few minutes coaching contestant Erik Liberman on votion to Lenya, whom he directed in Cabaret, and of his com- a frenetic “Try Me.” Erik went on to win second prize, and two mitment to the Foundation. His wife Judy recently characterized years later Hal put him in LoveMusik. Indeed, Hal spent his career this allegiance to the legacies of Weill and Lenya as “a constant nurturing new talent. (See the Spring 2009 Newsletter for more.) passion.” If Hal was in town and not in rehearsal, he always came The turning point inLoveMusik was an abbreviated adapta- to board meetings. He sometimes had to take a call or leave early, tion of “The Illusion Minstrel Show” from Love Life. Hal often said but he never came unprepared and had little patience for those that although Weill and Lerner’s daring prototype of the concept who did. And when Hal responded to a proposal or a report with musical didn’t quite work, “it was probably the most influential his trademark, “I think that’s just swell,” I considered it a rave re- show once I got the chance to make musical theater.” Sadly, he view. won’t be at City Center next March when Love Life returns to I recall, however, being more than a bit intimidated by him at New York for the first time. But the young director assisting Vic- the first, crisis-induced annual meeting we both attended in De- toria Clark with the production will be the first “Harold Prince/ cember 1981 after Lenya’s death. As a 33-year-old musicologist Kurt Weill Directing Fellow.” I think Hal would have liked that, with no experience in contractual or legal matters, performing maybe even thought it was “just swell.” rights, or music publishing, I knew I was in way over my head as her chosen successor. But Hal quickly tried to reassure me, invit- Kim H.