Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill , 1900-1950, German-American composer, b. Dessau, studied with Humperdinck and Busoni in Berlin. He first became known with the production of two short, satirical, surrealist operas, Der Protagonist (1926) and Der Zar lässt sich photographieren [the czar has himself photographed] (1928). More popular than these, however, was his melodious Dreigroschenoper (1928), a modern version of John Gay's Beggar's Opera, with book by Bertolt Brecht . Translated and adapted by Marc Blitzstein as The Threepenny Opera, it was first produced in New York City in 1933; revived in 1954, it ran for more than six years and has become one of the classics of the musical stage. Brecht was also the librettist of Weill's satiric opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny [rise and fall of the city Mahagonny] (1927; revised and expanded 1930). All these works were condemned as decadent by the rising followers of Hitler, and, in 1933, Weill left Germany for France.

In 1935 he emigrated to the United States, where he began writing sophisticated musicals, the most notable being Johnny Johnson (1936), Knickerbocker Holiday (1938; written with Maxwell Anderson ), Lady in the Dark (1941), and One Touch of Venus (1943; written with Ogden Nash ). In these works Weill employed with great facility advanced techniques, including multiple rhythms and polytonality, combined with the idiom of American popular music and jazz. His last works, in a more serious vein, included Street Scene (1947), Down in the Valley (1948), and Lost in the Stars (1949; written with Maxwell Anderson). His wife, the singer Lotte Lenya , played many of the leading roles in his works and was his defining interpreter. Weill also wrote some instrumental works; a cantata, Lindbergh's Flight (1929); and The Eternal Road (1934), a pageant of Jewish history originally composed in German with text by Franz Werfel . Weill became a U.S. citizen in 1943.

Weill, Kurt (1900–50) German composer. He is best known for his satirical operas, which include Der Protagonist (1926) and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1927), the latter with a libretto by Bertolt Brecht. Weill parodied commercial music as a means of social criticism. The Threepenny Opera (1928) was a modern version of John Gay's Beggar's Opera, again with a libretto by Brecht. After moving to the USA in 1935, Weill composed musicals for Broadway. His wife, Lotte Lenya, was a respected interpreter of his work.

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Weill, Kurt (1900–50), composer. The German‐born composer came to America in 1935 as a refugee from Nazism, accompanied by his wife, Lotte Lenya. American playgoers had already heard his unique, often jittery and staccato jazz‐influenced music in an earlier production of The Threepenny Opera (1933), which had a short run on Broadway. Shortly after his arrival his incidental music for Max Reinhardt's The Eternal Road (1937) was played in the New York production of the play. Weill's American musicals were Johnny Johnson (1936), Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), Lady in the Dark (1941), One Touch of Venus (1943), The Firebrand of Florence (1945), Street Scene (1947), Love Life (1948), and Lost in the Stars (1949). At the time of his death he was working with Maxwell Anderson on Raft on the River, a musicalization of Huckleberry Finn. A 1954 revival of Threepenny Opera became one of the most successful of all Off‐Broadway offerings and revived interest in his work, especially after “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” became widely popular. However, attempts to present his other German musicals have not met with success, although opera companies have staged such works as The Rise and Fall of Mahagonny. Weill was a unique composer, mixing European influences with Broadway razzamatazz and coming up with a distinctive sound of his own. He was also a master of the haunting, melancholy ballad, as seen in song standards like “September Song” and “Speak Low.” Biography: Kurt Weill on Stage: From Berlin to Broadway, Foster Hirsch, 2002.