Kurt Weill
The son of a cantor, Kurt Weill was born in Dessau into a family that took in operatic performances as a main form of entertainment. When Weill was in his teens the director of the Dessau Hoftheater, Albert Bing, encouraged him in the study of music. Weill briefly studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck and was already working professionally as a conductor when he attended composer Ferruccio Busoni's master classes in Berlin. Delighted to see the positive responses of an audience to his first collaboration with playwright Georg Kaiser, Der Protagonist (1926), he thereafter resolved to work toward accessibility in his music. In 1926 Weill married actress Lotte Lenya, whose reedy, quavering singing voice he called "the one I hear in my head when I am writing my songs."
In 1927 Weill began his collaboration with leftist playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht; their first joint venture, Mahagonny-Songspiel (1927), launched the number "Alabama Song," which, to their surprise, became a minor pop hit in Europe. The next show, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Three-Penny Opera, 1928), was a monstrous success, in particular the song "Moritat" ("Mack the Knife"). Nonetheless, strain in their association was already being felt, and after the completion of their magnificent "school opera" Der Jasager (1930), the two parted company. Brecht and Weill were brought together once more in Paris to create Die Sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins) in 1934. In the meantime, Weill collaborated with Caspar Neher on the opera Die Bürgschaft (1931) and Georg Kaiser again on Der Silbersee (1933), works that garnered the hostile attention of the then-emerging Nazi party.
With the rise to power of Hitler, Weill and Lenya were forced to dissolve their union and flee Continental Europe. Weill found his way to New York in 1935; rejoining Lenya, 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, Weill hit his stride with playwright Maxwell Anderson, producing his first hit, Knickerbocker Holiday (1938). In the dozen years left to him, Weill's stature on Broadway grew with a series of hit shows, including Lady in the Dark (1941), One Touch of Venus (1943), Love Life (1948), and Lost in the Stars (1949). 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 Street Scene (1946), a sort of "urban folk opera" based on a play by Elmer Rice with lyrics by Langston Hughes.
On April 3, 1950, Weill unexpectedly suffered a massive coronary and died in Lenya's arms. Weill's estate was valued at less than 1,000 dollars, and Lenya realized that his contribution to musical theater was likewise undervalued. She commissioned composer Marc Blitzstein to adapt an English-language version of Die Dreigroschenoper; it opened off-Broadway in 1954 and ran for three years, touching off a Weill revival that continues to this day.
© Uncle Dave Lewis /TiVo
Discografia
19 album • Ordinato per Bestseller
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The Threepenny Opera (Off-Broadway Revival Cast 1954)
Off-Broadway Revival Cast 1954
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Classic Soundtrack Collector il 8 dic 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Kurt Weill à Paris (De Kurt Weill à Paris)
Classica - Pubblicato da Saphir Productions il 26 ago 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Threepenny Opera (Original Cast, Donmar Warehouse)
Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Robert David MacDonald
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Jay Records il 1 gen 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lady In the Dark (Original London Cast)
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Jay Records il 1 ago 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
One Touch of Venus (Original JAY Cast, First Complete Recording)
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Jay Records il 7 ott 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bertolt Brecht: Die Dreigroschenoper
Opera - Pubblicato da The Digital Gramophone il 11 ago 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Threepenny Opera (Original Off Broadway Cast Recording) (Original Off Broadway Cast)
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Jay Records il 1 lug 1954
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tryout (a Series of Private Rehearsal Recordings) (Demo)
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Radiophone Archives il 7 ago 2018
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Street Scene (Original London Cast (Complete Recording))
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Jay Records il 1 gen 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weill: Little Threepenny Music (Digitally Remastered)
Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra, Hanspeter Gmur
Classica - Pubblicato da EMG Classical il 23 ott 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weill: Symphony No. 2; Ginastera: Variaciones concertantes
Julius Rudel, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Classica - Pubblicato da Musical Heritage Society il 5 lug 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lost in the Stars
Julius Rudel, Orchestra of St. Luke's
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Musical Heritage Society il 18 nov 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Die Dreigroschenoper, Historical Recordings Collection, 1928 - 1931
Classica - Pubblicato da Classical Moments il 16 apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Collegiate Chorale Presents: Knickerbocker Holiday
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Ghostlight Records il 2 ott 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
LoveMusik (Original Cast Recording)
Colonne sonore - Pubblicato da Ghostlight Records il 2 ott 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weill: Excerpts from Dreigroschenoper
Kurt Weill, Christian Lindberg, Prince of Denmark Air Force Band
Classica - Pubblicato da EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE il 21 feb 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Prince Of Denmark
Prince of Denmark Air Force Band, Christian Lindberg, Kurt Weill
Classica - Pubblicato da EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE il 17 ott 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weill: Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra, Op. 12, Little Threepenny Music
Julius Rudel, Orchestra of St. Luke's
Classica - Pubblicato da Musical Heritage Society il 1 gen 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny
Opera - Pubblicato da Unchained Melodie il 1 set 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo