Volume 15 Number 2 topical Weill Fall 1997 A supplement to the Kurt Weill Newsletter news &news events Mark your calendars—18 October 1998 is Lenya’s 100th Birthday! &news events Publications CD features the legendary Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch of Cologne will publish recordings that Lenya the German edition of Speak Low (When You Speak made for Philips in Ham- Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya 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. 2a Volume 15, Number 2 Topical Weill Bertolt Brecht turns 100 on 10 February 1998 Die Dreigroschenoper turns 70 Theaters, museums, film companies, Die Dreigroschenoper Die Dreigroschenoper, which first stunned publishers, television stations, and schol- Anniversary Productions Berlin audiences on 31 August 1928, cele- arly societies are planning to celebrate brates its 70th birthday during the 1998-1999 Brecht’s centenary. Below is a summary (Professional, Amateur, season and remains one of the most popular of the highlights. See also the Interna- College and School) theatrical pieces in the world. Performances tional Brecht Society website are scheduled in China, Latvia, Lithuania, (http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/german/ AUSTRIA Estonia, and Poland, in addition to numerous brecht). Tiroler Landestheater, Innsbruck professional and amateur productions in Eng- lish-speaking and German-speaking coun- Publications CHINA Chinese Youth Art Theater, Beijing tries. • Suhrkamp Verlag: Chronik zu Brecht by One of the first productions in the U.S. to Werner Hecht (2 vols.); Brecht in Finnland ESTONIA celebrate the anniversary opens on 3 Decem- by Hans-Peter Neureuther; a catalogue of Town Theater, Tallinn Brecht’s personal library edited by Dr. ber 1997 at the new Wilma Theater in Erdmut Wizisla; the completion of the thir- GERMANY Philadelphia. Director Blanka Zizka hopes to ty-volume Große Berliner und Frankfurter Westfälische Kammerspiele, Paderborn stage “a fresh, audacious interpretation of this Ausgabe of Brecht’s works; the correspon- Deutsches Theater, Berlin thoroughly modern masterpiece, whose blis- dence between Brecht and Helene Weigel. Bremer Theater tering wit and unforgettable score have made Städtische Theater Chemnitz • Methuen in London will add several new it an international hit for decades.” volumes to Brecht’s works in English, Anhaltisches Theater Dessau including anthologies of Brecht’s writings Landestheater Detmold on theater and theory, Brecht on art and Theater Essen politics, and Brecht on film and radio. Die Katakombe Frankfurt • Brecht 100. Ein Arbeitsbuch / A Sourcebook Thalia Theater, Hamburg edited by Marc Silberman. • Augsburger Theater der Stadt Koblenz Brecht-Lexikon by Jürgen Hillesheim. Theater Lüneburg Theater der Landeshauptstadt, Exhibitions Magdeburg • The Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv, Akademie der Münchner Volkstheater Künste Berlin, will mount an exhibition, “. und Residenztheater, München mein Werk ist der Abgesang des Jahrtausends” from Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater 25 January–29 March 1998, accompanied by an Schwerin exhibition catalogue. The exhibition will use Staatstheater Stuttgart books in Brecht’s library and archival documents Landesbühne Wilhelmshaven to illustrate the genesis of his works. • The Mitteldeutsches Landestheater, Goethe Institute in Munich and the city of Augs- Wittenberg burg are preparing separate traveling exhibitions. Schauspielhaus, Wuppertal • The Poster Museum in Bayreuth is planning an LATVIA exhibition of international theater and exhibition Latvijas Dailes Teatris, Riga posters focusing on Brecht and his contempo- raries. • The Berlin Museum will sponsor an LITHUANIA exhibit drawn from its theater collections, “Das Kaunas State Academic Drama Theatre Unterhaltungstheater Brechts.” POLAND news &news events Teatr Polski, Warsaw Conferences Conferences are organized for: • San Diego ROMANIA (10th Symposium of the International Brecht Teatrul Odeon, Bucharest Society). • Johannesburg (“IV. Johannesburger Germanistentreffen: 100 Jahre Brecht— SWEDEN Brechts Jahrhundert?”). • Seoul (“Rückblick Stadtstheater, Göteborg und Vorblick auf Brecht im Post-Sozialismus SWITZERLAND und Post-Modernismus”). • Dublin (“Dis- Gymnasium, Biel cussing Brecht”); Milan (“Poesie und Politik: 100 Jahre Bertolt Brecht”). • Berlin (“Brecht- UNITED KINGDOM Two sketches by Vladimir and Georgii Stenberg, for the Haileybury College Performers 1930 premiere of Die Dreigroschenoper at the Tage 1998”); the Literaturforum im Brecht- Moscow Kamerny Theater, were exhibited at the Haus, Berlin, is planning numerous events Broomfield School, London th Museum of Modern Art in New York earlier this year. throughout the year. Worcester College, 6 Form Photo: © 1997. The Museum of Modern Art. Television and Film UNITED STATES • “Brecht: Der Dichter und sein Jahrhundert” will Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylva- be shown on ARTE (Süddeutscher Rundfunk). nia NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers • A three-part television film (screenplay by Klaus Playmakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill, North Carolina “Bertolt Brecht: The Berlin Years,” a six-week Pohl, directed by Jan Schütte) produced by Beit- seminar co-directed by Siegfried Mews (Universi- inghoff Film-Produktionsgesellschaft (West- Skylight Opera Theater, Milwaukee, Wis- consin ty of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) and Marc Sil- deutscher Rundfunk). • An extensive retrospec- berman (University of Wisconsin, Madison), will tive of Brecht material, including documentaries Columbia University, School of the Arts, New York, New York take place from