The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music

In its first fully staged production since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Royal Opera House in London will live stream a double bill of The Seven Deadly Sins (version for 15 players) and Mahagonny Songspiel on 9 April for online audiences featuring soloists of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. The production has been created with online viewing in mind, building in cinematic elements to complement the live experience while enhancing the works’ social and political commentary. Following the live stream, the performance will be available on demand with a ticket until 9 May. https://stream.roh.org.uk//the-seven-deadly-sins-mahagonny

The Kurt Weill Foundation is proud to announce the grant recipients for the 2021 cycle: https://mailchi.mp/kwf/apr-2021-e-news#Copyright An additional application deadline of 1 June 2021 is primarily intended for College/University performance grants for productions taking place in the 2021-2022 academic year. For more information about the Grants Program: https://www.kwf.org/pages/guidelines.html#college #artsfunding #performancegrant #theatre #music

HK Gruber brings his vast experience and formidable expertise in the works of Kurt Weill to the podium this month to lead the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in performances of Weill’s two symphonies and excerpts from Der Silbersee. Gruber will both conduct and be featured as chansonnier in the Silbersee songs. The live event will stream without an audience on 9 April, followed by a premiere recording of the critical editions of the two symphonies in May. Concert details: http://www.orebrokonserthus.com/evenemang//weill-fest.html #orchestra #HKGruber #KurtWeill #symphony #opera

#OnThisDay in 1947, Weill's music for Street Scene was honored with the first Tony Award for an outstanding original score. Many consider Weill's score to be his most ambitious mixing opera, jazz, blues, and Broadway-style song-and-dance sequences. Famed poet Langston Hughes wrote the lyrics based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Elmer Rice. As one of Weill's most enduring American works, Street Scene realizes Weill's lifelong goal to blur the rigid lines between the opera house and the commercial musical theatre. #broadway #opera #theatre

#OnThisDay in 1946 marks the New York premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s Airborne Symphony, an impassioned work written during Blitzstein’s service in the Army Air Force during World War II. Blitzstein composed the symphony in 1943 and 1944 while he was stationed in England, but the original manuscript was lost, along with the rest of his belongings, as they were shipped home the following year. Blitzstein rewrote the entire score on the ship as he returned to the U.S. for demobil...ization. The lavish score is divided into three parts that connect the birth of flight with the role of airplanes in modern warfare. The work ends with a repeated warning to humanity: bombardment may be necessary at times, but it is nothing to glory in or gloat over. Leonard Bernstein’s advocacy of the work resulted in two recordings made about twenty years apart. Listen to the 1966 recording with the New York Philharmonic and Choral Art Society, Orson Welles as narrator, and tenor Andrea Velis as soloist. https://youtu.be/_rEGmcQBbFk #MarcBlitzstein #LeonardBernstein #symphony

Den Norske Opera & Ballett is streaming a new production of Die sieben Todsünden through 9 April, conducted by Ingar Bergby and featuring Eli Kristin Hanssveen as Anna I. Watch it here: https://operaen.no//digit/lead-us-into-temptation-digital/

Don't miss the new Broadway to Main Street episode devoted to Kurt Weill this Sunday at 3 PM ET, live and streaming on WLIW - FM. https://www.wliw.org/radio/programs/broadway-to-main-street/

The New York Times explores the "unbroken line from Weill’s earliest works, as a teenager, to his final projects for the American stage." https://www.nytimes.com//a/kurt-weill-classical-music.html

#OnThisDay Kurt Weill departs Germany for France in 1933, not knowing when he might return. He is alerted by someone with knowledge of Nazi plans that he is in danger of arrest. Caspar and Erika Neher help Weill escape to Paris, where they arrive on March 23. Weill would never set foot in Germany again. Photo: Weill's passport. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

Written in 1939 for Lotte Lenya, the Weill-Brecht song "Nanna's Lied" reveals a setting where harshness and tenderness meet in a touching way, revisited here by Katharine Mehrling.

De Nationale Opera - Dutch National Opera will stream Die sieben Todsünden as part of the Opera Forward Festival on March 18. Check out a behind the scenes look at the unique production starring Eva-Maria Westbroek and Anna Drijver as the two Annas. More details: https://www.operaballet.nl//s/kurt-weill-seven-deadly-sins

A little weekend reading Catch up on the latest #KurtWeill news in the March KWF E-News: https://mailchi.mp/kwf/mar-2021-e-news #opera #musicaltheatre #orchestra #LotteLenya #JuliusRudel

The Lotte Lenya Competition has announced the 2021 Semifinalists! Bravo to all of the performers. Read the full story: https://www.kwf.org//pr-2021-llc-semifinalists-announced.h #opera #musicaltheatre #performer

#OnThisDay The Threepenny Opera opened Off-Broadway in 1954 at the Theater de Lys (now the Lucille Lortel Theatre). With an English translation by Marc Blitzstein, the landmark production starred Lotte Lenya (Jenny), Scott Merrill (Macheath), Bea Arthur (Lucy), Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Peachum), Leon Lishner (Mr. Peachum), and Jo Sullivan Loesser (Polly). It played 2,707 performances, closing at the end of 1961. Listen to the cast recording: https://open.spotify.com/album/5M2MsnDwIWbaCXSxPw4Ocx

#OnThisDay Der Lindberghflug, a music-theatre piece about Charles Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic flight, premiered in Berlin as an orchestra concert in 1929. With text by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill originally agreed to share the score with German composer Paul Hindemith, but Weill later decided that he would set the entire score himself. The outcome is a peculiar and touching thirty-five minute cantata with conversations between the Flier and the elements: the fog, the snowst...orm and the motor, and a description of a phantom fisherman of the coast of Ireland. Listen to the Kölner Rundfunk Orchester recording released in 1990: https://youtu.be/EdQnpwe09ZQ Photo: No photos from the December 1929 concert are available. This photo is from the first performance at the Baden-Baden Chamber Music Festival on July 27, 1929. The music for this version was composed by Weill and Hindemith. The "Radio" was a character in the script; "der Hörer" means the listener. The performance was broadcast the following day on Cologne Radio. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

A stunning rendition of Kurt Weill's World War II-era song "Wie lange noch" (How Much Longer) by American soprano Julia Bullock, classical singer, accompanied by Christian Reif. During the live broadcast of this song, it was intended to be a sort of coded message sent back to the German people, but now almost 80 years later when I am wanting to deliver the messages of this song, I don’t want anything to be coded because we are living through various crises and the frustration is that none of us know when there’s going to be resolution." https://youtu.be/pyJsiO6SbAY?t=197

This month, the KWF E-News covers The Seven Deadly Sins streamed live from Opera North, updates to the 2021 Lotte Lenya Competition, Zaubernacht, and more. Read it here: https://mailchi.mp/kwf/dec-2020-e-news

If you missed the lunchtime concert featuring Kurt Weill selections from operatic mezzo Christine Rice and pianist Julius Drake, check out the footage from Wigmore Hall!

#OnThisDay Kurt Weill's final stage work Lost in the Stars opened in 1949 at NYC's Music Box Theatre. Based on Alan Paton's novel Cry, the Beloved Country, the story follows Black suffering in apartheid South Africa. Weill and Maxwell Anderson stretched the thematic boundaries of Broadway, as Weill's rich score mixes opera, musical theatre, blues, chorales, folk, and even jitterbug. The 1949 production's stirring intensity is captured on the original cast album featuring actor Todd Duncan, the original Porgy in Porgy and Bess. At its core, Lost in the Stars is a tale of morality, injustice, and ultimately of healing a touching reminder for our current times. Photo: The Reverend Stephen Kumalo (Todd Duncan) marries his imprisoned son (Julian Mayfield) to Irina (Inez Matthews), 1949. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

We are sad to learn of the passing of American bass Arthur Woodley. With a voice that can warm and heal, listen to his stirring performance of "Lost in the Stars." https://youtu.be/FGMc0rhdkCc

A first look at The Seven Deadly Sins at Opera North, presented next month at Leeds Playhouse. The staged production stars mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta as Anna I, a role she has performed multiple times throughout the world. KWF President Kim H. Kowalke said Giunta’s performance as Anna I in the 2017 Toronto Symphony production was the most riveting storytelling of the Sins that I’ve encountered. The Opera North production also features Maestro James Holmes, recipient of the Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, and Gary Clarke as director, both returning from last year’s lauded Opera North production of Street Scene for which they served as conductor and choreographer, respectively. More info: bit.ly/HandelWeill

The Atlanta Opera kicks off their Big Tent Concert Series tomorrow night (Tuesday, Oct 27) with a socially-distanced evening of Kurt Weill. Three Lotte Lenya Competition prizewinners are featured: Jasmine Habersham, Soprano, Megan Marino, mezzo-soprano, and Brian Vu, Tenor. https://www.atlantaopera.org/performance/big-tent-concert/

Tonight! University of Wisconsin - Madison Mead Witter School of Music presents a biographical video production about Marc Blitzstein's life and art told through 23 songs from his shows. The video features five UW-Madison graduate students. Streaming is available for 23 hours starting at 8:00 PM CDT. https://www.music.wisc.edu//i-wish-it-so-marc-blitzstein-/ Photo: Marc Blitzstein, 1925. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

#OnThisDay Knickerbocker Holiday premiered in 1938 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City. Based on Washington Irving's book A History of New York (1809), the musical is a historical allegory about absolute political power during the Dutch settlements in what is now New York. With a peculiar mixture of highbrow and lowbrow, Kurt Weill experimented with American pop and old-world operetta styles to create a zesty score, including the sterling ballad "It Never Was You"... and the indelible "September Song." The musical starred Walter Huston, grandfather to actress Anjelica Huston, as the ruthless tyrant Peter Stuyvesant. The show closed after 168 performances, followed by a short tour with Weill tagging along part of the way because he wanted to sightsee America, as news from Europe grew darker. Photo: Walter Huston as Stuyvesant with Jeanne Madden as Tina in Knickerbocker Holiday, 1938. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

(A) Happy End for the Weill-Brecht-Hauptmann musical, published for the first time as the latest volume of the Kurt Weill Edition. Prepared by Stephen Hinton, Professor of Music at Stanford University, and Elmar Juchem, Managing Editor of the Edition, the latest volume gives fresh understanding of the score and script with historical context. Read the details at https://www.kwf.org/pages/n-happy-end-at-last.html Photo: "Surabaya-Johnny" original instrumental part that was extracted from the full score. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

#OnThisDay Lotte Lenya was born in 1898 in Vienna. Born Karoline Wilhelmine Blamauer, Lenya had an early ambition to become a dancer that led her to Zurich in 1914, where she studied classical dance and worked in the opera and ballet at the Stadttheater. Once she set out for Berlin in 1921 with the hope of making a career as a dancer, her life and career changed immensely by meeting Kurt Weill, eventually becoming his wife (twice) and the preeminent interpreter of his music. ...Lenya established the Kurt Weill Foundation in 1962 with a mission to preserve and promote Weill's music. She succumbed to cancer in 1981, but her legacy lives on in her acclaimed recordings and film appearances. The Lotte Lenya Competition was established in 1998 to honor the centenary of her birth. What better way to commemorate the occasion than to read, watch, and listen to an array of Lenya's career highlights! Check out the list here: https://mailchi.mp/kwf/oct-2020-e-news Photo: Portrait of Lotte Lenya by photographer Lotte Jacobi, 1930. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

A concert version of Die Dreigroschenoper opens tonight at Theater Ulm in Germany. Social distancing and political satire will ensue. Additional performances are October 24, 29, and 31. Get your tickets at https://theater-ulm.de//stue/die-dreigroschenoper-20202021 Photos: Martin Kaufhold

#OnThisDay Kurt Weill's Symphony no. 2 premiered in 1934, played by the Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam. Billed as "Symphonische Fantasie," the piece was commissioned by Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac, American-born heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Weill attended the premiere and wrote to Lotte Lenya, "The rehearsal was wonderful. [Conductor Bruno] Walter does it marvelously and everyone is really enthusiastic, especially the entire orchestra! It's a good piece and sounds fantastic." Photo: Weill's autographed score for his Symphony no. "1" bears a dedication to Princesse Edmond de Polignac. This work is now known as Symphony no. 2. Weill's first symphony, written in 1921 during his apprenticeship with Ferruccio Busoni, was not performed by an orchestra until 1956. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

Weekend plans? Take a walking (or virtual) tour of classical musicians and composers' houses in NYC, including Kurt Weill's residence early in his U.S. career. https://www.classical-music.com//a-musical-tour-of-new-yo/

This month, the KWF E-News covers Kurt Weill performances during the pandemic, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's connection to Lost in the Stars, Lotte Lenya's birthday, and more. Read it here: https://mailchi.mp/kwf/oct-2020-e-news

#OnThisDay Love Life premiered in 1948 at the 46th Street Theater (now the Richard Rodgers) in NYC. The only collaboration between Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner, the production is one of the earliest examples of the concept musical and a major influence on some of the most innovative musicals of the past fifty years. The story centers around married couple, Sam and Susan Cooper, who never age as they progress from 1791 to 1948, encountering difficulties in their marriage as ...they struggle to cope with changes in American society and economy. While the show was radically innovative in a formal sense, musically the collaborators intended to remain well within standard Broadway styles, as heard in the pretty duet "Here I'll Stay" and the rousing eleven o'clock number, "Mr. Right." Photo: Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner in rehearsal for Love Life, 1948. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.

#OnThisDay One Touch of Venus opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre in 1943. The musical comedy about the goddess of love who defies mortal limits offered a fantasy with particular resonance during World War II it was a hit. Mary Martin gave a star-making performance as Venus, long before she played Peter Pan and Maria in The Sound of Music. Agnes de Mille, fresh from her landmark work on Oklahoma!, choreographed the production with ambitious ballet sequences, blending... acting with dance. The work also features some of Kurt Weill's most enduring songs, such as "Speak Low," a paean to the passing of time, and "I'm A Stranger Here Myself," a jazzlike number where Venus expresses her puzzlement at the customs of the country with erotic fizz. Photo: Publicity shot of Mary Martin as Venus, 1943. Courtesy of the Weill-Lenya Research Center.