Kurt Weill was a German Jewish composer who started out as avant-garde. He was a rigorously trained academic composer who dared dream of mass appeal. He was drawn to the theater and developed distinctive music that mixes classical, jazz, and popular music, still with the edginess of earlier works. His journey took him to Paris, London, and eventually Broadway, where he sought to create a higher quality of theater music, but also help create a distinctly American music.
After writing ten operas, Weill said: “I’m not interested in new musical forms or theories, I’m looking for a new audience.” Bertolt Brecht, along with other of Weill's European collaborators, denounced the ''American Weill'' of ''Street Scene,'' ''Lady in the Dark,'' ''Knickerbocker Holiday,'' and ''Lost in the Stars'' as trite deviations from his German masterpieces. But he challenged the purity of pre-existing styles and continued his pursuit of the “dramatic musical” which he thought would become the “American opera.”
Please join our host Wayne as we follow some of Weill’s journey through a selection of his works.
