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Kurt Weill Back on Broadway, in Concert and at Spoleto

May. 04, 2007

On Broadway

This May Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya take center stage in the new Broadway musical LoveMusik at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Biltmore Theatre. Inspired by the book Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, the play follows the life of composer Kurt Weill and his marriage to Lotte Lenya, star of many of his groundbreaking pieces. From their courtship and early collaborations in Europe through their journey to America and the debut of the landmark musical The Threepenny Opera, LoveMusik gets deep inside their fascinating and complicated partnership, spanning more than twenty-five years and enduring divorce and exile. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry and directed by Tony winner Harold Prince, LoveMusik will feature more than twenty of Weill’s songs. Director Harold Prince comments on the musical:

“What inspired the notion was the letters… There’s nothing pompous or ‘important’ about any of it. So, I thought there is a musical here, and it’s not epistolary. I hate to go into a theatre and see a lectern and know that somebody is going to read letters to me. This will be a real musical. You really can’t figure out what the next move is going to be because it was one of the most eccentric relationships in the world.”

Erik Liberman, a winner of the 2005 Lotte Lenya Competition, makes his Broadway debut alongside Tony winners Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill and Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya. LoveMusik premiered at the Biltmore Theatre on May 3 and the run has now been extended through June 24.

In Concert

The pioneering chorus Dessoff Choirs will perform Kurt Weill’s Das Berliner Requiem on May 10 at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. With a libretto by the frequent Weill collaborator Bertolt Brecht, the piece was originally written for radio in 1928. Under musical director James Bagwell, this event features chorus, soloists, orchestra, harmonium and banjo. The evening includes a pre-concert interview at 7:15 pm with distinguished scholar Kim Kowalke, author of Kurt Weill in Europe.

At the Spoleto USA Festival

Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is scheduled for this year's Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. With recent critically acclaimed performances at Los Angeles Opera and Opera Boston, this is Mahagonny’s third production in as many months and will be conducted by Spoleto USA’s Music Director of Opera and Orchestra Emmanuel Villaume. Six performances round out Spoleto’s production of Mahagonny this year, opening on May 25 and running through June 9.

Also featured in this years’ Spoleto Festival on June 6 is the 2005 Lotte Lenya Competition winner Jonathan Michie in a recital of Weill selections. Soprano Tammy Hensrud (also appearing in Mahagonny) and pianist Michael Baitzer join Mr. Richie as they perform Four Walt Whitman Songs, songs from The Unknown Kurt Weill and selected songs from Weill stage works.

At the Jewish Music Forum

The Jewish Music Forum presents Dr. Tamara Levitz in a lecture entitled “Kurt Weill’s Kol Nidre and Jewish Memory” at the Center for Jewish History in New York on Tuesday, May 8 at 7:30. Sponsored by the American Society for Jewish Music and the American Jewish Historical Society, Dr. Levitz will explore Kurt Weill's use of the Kol Nidre melody in three Jewish works composed in American exile: The Eternal Road, “We Will Never Die”, and “A Flag is Born”. A live music performance will illustrate the lecture, featuring rarely-heard Judaic works by Kurt Weill, performed by soprano Jeannie Im, tenor David Gordon, and pianist Michael Fennelly.

Kurt Weill
Das Berliner Requiem (1928)
0.0.2.2 alto sax (ten. sax). 2; 2.2.2.0; guitar, banjo, organ or harmonium, timp, perc
1928

Kurt Weill
The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1929)
2 (2 picc).1.1.sop. sax, alto sax, tenor sax.2 (cbn); 2.3.2.1; piano, harmonium ad lib., banjo, bass guitar, bandoneon, timp, perc; str; Stage orchestra - 2 Fl (2 picc), 2 cl, 3 sax (sop., alto, ten.) 2 bn; 2.2.2.1; piano, zither or xylophone, banjo, bandoneon, perc.; 3 vn
130'

For more on the music of Kurt Weill, go to www.kwf.org or www.eamdllc.com

For precise dates, times and ticketing information on LoveMusik please visit www.mtc-nyc.org.

For more information on The Dessoff Choirs go to www.dessoff.org

To learn more about the Spoleto Festival USA visit www.spoletousa.org

Please visit www.jewishmusicforum.org to learn more on the Jewish Music Forum.

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