KURT WEILL NEWSLETTER Volume 9 , Number 2 Fall 1991 IN THIS ISSUE CULTURAL NOTES FROM THE FORMER GDR JURGEN 5CHEBERA 6 ARCHIVAL RESEARCH IN FORMER EAST GER- MANY TAMARA LEVITZ 8 DROPS IN THE DREIGROSCHEN O CEAN 5 TEPHEN HINTON 10 REPRINT OF "FILM Music: THE HARRY LIME THEME" BY HANS KELLER BOOKS 14 Briefe an Marianne Zojf und Hanne Hiob by Bertolt Brecht; edited by Hanne Hiob. Real Life Drama by Wendy Smith Two New German Discographies Joyless Streets by Patrice Petro Inventing Champagne by Gene Lees PERFORMANCES 18 Knickerbocker Holiday in lngolstadt Die Dreigroschenoperatthe Vienna Volkstheater L'Opera de quat'sous near Paris Happy End in Costa Mesa, CA Kurt Weill Revue in Paris Lost in the Stars at the Brighton Festival Happy End at the Juilliard School Concerto for violin and wind instruments in Boston Marie Galante in New York RECORDINGS 23 Street Scene on Decca/London and TER Cover o f the original souvenir program, 1947 Symphonies 1 & 2 on Nimbus and Koch/ Schwann The Seven Deadly Sins on CBS and Decca/ London Decca/London and That's Entertainment Records release complete recordings of COLUMNS Street Scene. Jon Alan Conrad's review Letters to the Editor 4 appears on page 23. From the Archives 12 New Publications 13 Selected Performances 27 NEWS University of California Press to Three New Mahagonnys in Europe mances are planned for 17, 19, and 21 Janu­ Publish Weill Correspondence ary 1992. Bill T. Jones directs and Christo­ New productions ofAufstieg und Fall der pher Larkin serves as conductor for the The University of California Press has Stadt Mahagonnyfigure in the 1991-92 rep­ performances that include Robert signed an agreement with the Kurt Weill ertories of noted opera houses in Germany Honeysucker (Stephen Kumalo) and Foundation for Music to publish at least and Switzerland. Schauspie!Bonn and Oper Pamela Dillard (Irina). BostonLyricOpera's four volumes of collected correspondence Bonn collaborate on a new production, season continues in March 1992 with in critical editions over the next six years. staged by Siegfried Schoenbohm and con­ Offenbach's The Tales ofHoffm ann. Kim H. Kowalke will serve as the general ducted by Dennis Russell Davies, newly editor of the series, which will include col­ appointed General Music Director of Oper New Recordings Scheduled for lections ofthe Weill-Leoyacorrespondence, Bonn. The premiere is set for 20 December Release theWeill-Universal Edition correspondence, 1991 and performances continue through This season brings the release of several the correspondence ofWeill and his family, 15 March. Ruth Berghaus will direct a new new recordings. Koch-Schwann has re­ and that ofWeill and his collaborators. The production for Staatstheater Stuttgart that cently issued in Europe the Four Walt University of California Press volumes will opens 22 March 1992 and runs through 14 Whitman Songs for voice and orchestra, appear in English; individual volume edi­ June. The Grand Theatre, Geneva, stages Berliner Requiem, and Recordare, recorded tors and editions in other languages will be Mahagonny in May. The creative team at the 24 March 1990 concert of the North announced as arranged.- includes KurtJosefSchildknecht, director, Rhine Westphalia Kurt-Weill-Festival. Bari­ JeffreyTate, conductor, and Werner Rutterli The first volume, Speak Low: 11ie Weill­ tone soloist is Wolfgang Holzmair for the and Renate Schmitzer, stage and costume edited by Kirn H. Mitman Songs, and the Niederrheinische Lenya Co"espondence, designers. Performancesarescheduledfor Kowalke and Lys Symooette, will be pub­ Chorgemeinschaft Dilsseldorf. M!idchen­ lished in Spring 1993 and featured in the 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, and 23 May 1992. chor Hannover, and Chor der Studenten publisher's Fall 1993 catalog. Hamish der evangelischer Kirchenmusik Dilssel­ Hamilton will be thepublishe r in the United London Discovers Love Life dorf, with members ofthe Robert-Schumann Kingdom. The Victoria and Albert Museum will present a staged concert reading of Love KURT WEILL NEWSLEmR mcclung Wins AMS 50 Life as part of their 1991 season "Discover Vol. 9. No. 2; Fall 1991 bruce d. mcclung, Ph.D. candidate in The Lost Musical." The program, directed musicology atthe University of Rochester/ by Ian Marshall Fisher, is designed to 0 1991 Kurt Weill Foundation for Music Eastman School of Music, has been se­ reintroduce neglected theater works by 7 East 20th Street lected as a recipientof the prestigious AMS important twentieth-century composers. 50 Fellowship Award for 1990-91. The sti­ Love Life will be presented from script with New Yortc, NY 10003-1106 pend, instituted on the 50th anniversary of piano, with pre-performance talks, over a Tel, (212) 505-5240 the American Musicological Society, is five-Sunday period. beginning on 17 Fax (212) 353-9663 awarded on a competitive basis and given in November and continuing through 15 support of final stages of research and writ· December, in the Paintings Gallery, located The Newsletter is published to provide an open ing of the doctoral musicology dissertation. in Covent Garden. Members of the Royal forum wherein interested readers may express a Mr. mcclung, one of sixAMS 50 Fellows, is Shakespeare Company and theRoyal Opera variety of ideas and opinions. The opinions ex­ completing a dissertation entitled "Kurt donate their services to this non-profit pressed do not necessarilyrepresent the publisher's Weill's Lady in the Dark." venture. Other works in thefall 1991 season official viewpoint. The editor encourages the include Frank Loesser's Green Willow and Simon and Schuster Publishes New submission of artides, reviews, and news items for the Richard Rodgers-Arthur Laurents­ lndusion in future issues. The submission deadline Weill Biography Stephen Sondheim collaboration Do I Hear for the next issue is 15 January 1992. Anewbiography, Kurt Weill: Composer in a Waltz?. a Divided World by British author Ronald David Famett,. Editor Taylor, was published in September by University News Mario R. Meffado, Auodate Editor Simon and Schuster, London (ISBN 0-671- The University of Arizona School of Mu­ Margaret M, Sheny, Photo Editor 71070-2). A US publisher has not been sic will present Street Scene on 1 and 3 Anita T. Welsburger, l'roductlon announced. According to advance public­ November, 1991, with director Professor John Watson, llroductJon Assistant ity, "RonaldTaylor'spenetratingstudydraws Charles Roe and conductor Dr.JosefKnott . extensively on primary material and on the Board of Trustees The operad epartment ofCarnegie-Mellon testimony of people who knew the com­ Kim Kowalke, President University plans a production ofStreet Sune poser. Unravelling the many cultural and Henry Marx, VICP-Pn!sident in March 1992, directed byJan etBooks pan intellectual threads running through Weill's lys Symonette, and conducted by Robert Page. Vice-Presidenr music and unsettled life, he paints an inte­ Guy Stem, Seceta,y grated picture of the man and his works, The Curtis Institutefor Music will mount Milton Coleman, Treasurer setting Weill's compositions against their a double bill of Mahagonny Songspiel and Philip Getter historical and cultural background and as­ the Happy EndSongspiel, directed by Rhoda Harold Prince sessing their position in the musical life of Levine and conducted by David Hayes, in Julius Rudel the twentieth century." Prof. Taylor made the late spring of 1992. two extended visits to the Weill-Lenya Re­ Foundation Staff search Center and Yale University for his Boston Lyric to Stage research. Taylor's other books include Lit­ Lost in the Stars Kim Kowalke, President erature and Society in Germany 1918-1945, David Farneth, DiteCtDr and Atchivlst The Art ofthe Minnesinger, The Intellectual Following a successful 1990-91 season Lys Symonette, Musical Executive Tradition ofModern Germany, and biogra­ that included a critically acclaimed produc­ Mario R. Mercado, DirectOr of Programs phies ofWagner , Schumann, and Liszt. His tion of Marc Blitzstein's Regina, the Boston Margaret M. Sheny, Associate Archivist edition of Wilhelm Furtwangler's writings Lyric Opera continues its commitment to Anita T. Weisburger, Office Administrator on music is due to be published in Novem­ American works with a production ofLost in John Watson, Secretary ber by Scolar Press. the Stars in its 1991-92 season. Perfor- Kurt Weill Newsletter Volume 9 Number 2 2 NEWS Kammerorchester. under Willi Gundlach, Fall Theater Conferences of Louisville at (502) 584-1265; FAX (502) perform lhe Requiem and Recorda.re. The Actors Theatre of Louisville is pre­ 583-9922. senting "TheTheatre ofThe Weimar Repub­ Koch Internationalwill issue in late 1991 The 1991 annual meeting of the Ameri­ lic: Germany 1918-1933," a weekend of per­ can Society for Theatre Research will be a recording entitled An Unqttiet Peace: 171e formances, exhibits, lectures, and colloquia The recording of­ held in conjunction with the Theatre Li­ lied Between the Wms. 18-20 October in Louisville, Kenhtcky. The fers the premiere of Ofrah's Lieder and brary Association meeting 14--17 Novem­ Berliner Ensemble will perform Love and ber at the University of Washington, Se­ includes "Casers Tod," ''Die Muschel von Revolution, a Brecht cabaret, and the Actors Margate," and "Berlin im Licht." Soprano attle. Seventy scholars will present papers Theatre will present the winner of the 1931 Cynthia Seiden, baritone Bill Sharp, and in thirteen sessions. David Kilroy of 19eistPrize, Talesfrom the Vienna Woods-by Harvard University, a Kurt Weill Founda­ pianist Steven Blier