Biography

The son of a cantor, [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Kurt Weill was born in Dessau into a family that took in operatic performances as a main form of entertainment. When [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill was in his teens the director of the Dessau Hoftheater, Albert Bing, encouraged him in the study of music. [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill briefly studied composition with [roviLink="MN0001212248"]Engelbert Humperdinck and was already working professionally as a conductor when he attended composer [roviLink="MN0001744037"]Ferruccio Busoni's master classes in Berlin. Delighted to see the positive responses of an audience to his first collaboration with playwright [roviLink="MN0002172293"]Georg Kaiser, [roviLink="MC"]Der Protagonist (1926), he thereafter resolved to work toward accessibility in his music. In 1926 [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill married actress [roviLink="MN0000806947"]Lotte Lenya, whose reedy, quavering singing voice he called "the one I hear in my head when I am writing my songs." In 1927 [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill began his collaboration with leftist playwright and poet [roviLink="MN0000042141"]Bertolt Brecht; their first joint venture, [roviLink="MC"]Mahagonny-Songspiel (1927), launched the number [roviLink="MC"]"Alabama Song," which, to their surprise, became a minor pop hit in Europe. The next show, [roviLink="MC"]Die Dreigroschenoper (The Three-Penny Opera, 1928) was a monstrous success, in particular the song [roviLink="MC"]"Moritat" (Mack the Knife). Nonetheless, strain in their association was already being felt, and after the completion of their magnificent "school opera" [roviLink="MC"]Der Jasager (1930), the two parted company. [roviLink="MN0000042141"]Brecht and [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill were brought together once more in Paris to create [roviLink="MC"]Die Sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins) (1934). In the meantime, [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill collaborated with [roviLink="MN0001649831"]Caspar Neher on the opera [roviLink="MC"]Die Bürgschaft (1931) and [roviLink="MN0002172293"]Georg Kaiser again on [roviLink="MC"]Der Silbersee (1933), works that garnered the hostile attention of the then-emerging Nazi party. With the rise to power of Hitler, [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill and [roviLink="MN0000806947"]Lenya were forced to dissolve their union and flee continental Europe. [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill found his way to New York in 1935; rejoining [roviLink="MN0000806947"]Lenya, [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill became a citizen and devoted himself to American democracy with a vengeance, preferring his name pronounced like "wile" rather than "vile." After a series of frustrating flops, [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill hit his stride with playwright [roviLink="MN0001320781"]Maxwell Anderson, producing his first hit, [roviLink="MC"]Knickerbocker Holiday (1938). In the dozen years left to him, [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill's stature on Broadway grew with a series of hit shows, including [roviLink="MC"]Lady in the Dark (1941), [roviLink="MC"]One Touch of Venus (1943), [roviLink="MC"]Love Life (1948), and [roviLink="MC"]Lost in the Stars (1949). [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill had ambitions to create what he regarded as "the first American folk opera"; the closest of his American works to reach that goal is [roviLink="MC"]Street Scene (1946), a sort of "urban folk opera" based on a play by [roviLink="MN0001654804"]Elmer Rice with lyrics by [roviLink="MN0000117819"]Langston Hughes. On April 3, 1950, [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill unexpectedly suffered a massive coronary and died in [roviLink="MN0000806947"]Lenya's arms. [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill's estate was valued at less than 1,000 dollars, and [roviLink="MN0000806947"]Lenya realized that his contribution to musical theater was likewise undervalued. She commissioned composer [roviLink="MN0000795493"]Marc Blitzstein to adapt an English-language version of [roviLink="MC"]Die Dreigroschenoper; it opened off-Broadway in 1954 and ran for three years, touching off a [roviLink="MN0000683446"]Weill revival that continues.

Top Tracks

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Discography

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• From Berlin to Broadway, Vol. 1: A Selection

  Pearl

  2000

• Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera

  RCA / RCA Red Seal

  1999

• Seven Deadly Sins

  Polygram

  1989

• Kurt Weill: Mahagonny

  Sony Classical Essential Classics

  1988

• Tryout

  DRG

  1953