Kurt Weill

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Kurt Weill

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

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.

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Weill, Kurt

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | © World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

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

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre | 2004 | | © The Oxford Companion to American Theatre 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

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.

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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Weill, Kurt." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Oxford University Press. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 29 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Weill, Kurt." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Oxford University Press. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (November 29, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-WeillKurt.html

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Weill, Kurt." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Oxford University Press. 2004. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-WeillKurt.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article Honoring Kurt Weill.
Magazine article from: Los Angeles Business Journal; 4/30/2001
Free Article Birthday tribute.(Kurt Weill, Museum of Contemporary Art)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Los Angeles Business Journal; 2/21/2000
Free Article Música: Kurt Weill, 1900-2000.(compositor)(TT: Music: Kurt Weill, 1900-2000.)(TA: composer)(Artículo Breve)(Columna)
Magazine article from: Proceso; 9/10/2000

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Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

Interest Surges in Music of Composer Kurt Weill
Transcript from: NPR All Things Considered; 5/13/1996; 700+ words ; ...York declared last week to be ``Kurt Weill Week,'' with a series of concerts...good times for fans of the music of Kurt Weill. The foundation that bears the composer...s name declared last week to be `Kurt Weill Week.' The group has just published...
Kurt Weill: Composer in a Divided World.
Magazine article from: Notes; 6/1/1994; ; 700+ words ; Whether interest in the music of Kurt Weill has matured in recent years is arguable...likewise grown, with Ronald Taylor's Kurt Weill: Composer in a Divided World being...in his review of this book in the Kurt Weill Newsletter 10 [Fall 1992]: 17...
'The Music of Kurt Weill: September Song' airs Wednesday night on PBS. (Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service; 1/24/1995; ; 700+ words ; ...the song _ written in 1938 _ was by Kurt Weill, the name would have meant nothing...citizen roster our flirtation with Kurt Weill continues. Just a couple of summers...doing it) from ``The Music of Kurt Weill: September Songs,'' the 90...
Kurt Weill: Die Dreigroschenoper: A Facsimile of the Holograph Full Score. Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht.(Review)
Magazine article from: Notes; 12/1/1998; ; 700+ words ; Edited by Edward Harsh. (The Kurt Weill Edition, ser. IV: Miscellanea, vol. 1.) New York: Kurt Weill Foundation for Music; Valley Forge...48; afterword as introd. to the Kurt Weill Edition (David Drew) in Ger...
Kurt Weill
Magazine article from: Film - Dienst; 6/18/2002; ; 700+ words ; 35 466 Kurt Weill Deutschland 2001 Produktion: Theviko...Daugird Lnge: 97 Min. Verleih: Salzgeber Kurt Weill, das klingt nach Anspruch und Avantgarde...Knstler auftreten, die sich heute mit Kurt Weill beschftigen und seine Songs interpretieren...
A Stranger Here Myself: Kurt Weill Studien.
Magazine article from: Notes; 3/1/1995; ; 700+ words ; ...of the most important aspects of Kurt Weill's reception since 1950, Weill...new worlds; the German and generic Kurt Weill Studien is more down-to-earth...Mahagonny. The proceedings from the Kurt Weill Festival in 1990 are just one of...
Classical: Will the real Kurt Weill now please stand up? His music has survived the effect of the Nazis, Broadway and Lotte Lenya. But only just.
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 10/1/1999; ; 700+ words ; Which is the real Kurt Weill? The German Weill, who fled the...South Bank Centre's celebration "Kurt Weill: From Time to Time", a two-part...attempts to imitate her." As part of "Kurt Weill: From Time to Time", HK Gruber...
Book: The modesty of a popular iconoclast; Kurt Weill, A Life in Pictures and Documents. By David Farneth, with Elmar Juchem and Dave Stein (Thames & Hudson, pounds 40). Reviewed by Richard Edmonds.
Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England); 4/15/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...reference at all in its 513 pages to Kurt Weill! Breezy Bill (a nickname for the...times he lived in, vividly to life. Kurt Weill was, of course, a musical iconoclast...was on the wall for German Jews and Kurt Weill's parents had already left Germany...
Kurt Weill.(The Firebrand of Florence: Broadway Operetta in Two Acts)(Ballade von der sexuellen Horigkeit und andere Songs fur Gesang und Klavier)(6 ausgewahlte Stucke aus Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny fur Gesang und Klavier)(Four Walt Whitman Songs for Voice and Piano)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Notes; 12/1/2005; ; 700+ words ; Kurt Weill. The Firebrand of Florence: Broadway...Justus Mayer; edited by Joel Galand. (The Kurt Weill Edition, ser. I: Stage, vol. 18.) New York: Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc.; Miami...
TWO VOCALISTS REVIEW KURT WEILL
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 6/24/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...Nazi regime of early 1930s Germany, Kurt Weill's politically leaning and darkly...This schism is highlighted in "Kurt Weill: Songs Degenerate and Otherwise...performed for so many years. While Kurt Weill isn't exactly Eminem when it comes...

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