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Weill, Blitzstein, and Bernstein
A Study of Influence
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Rebecca Schmid
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2023
About this book
The first study to explore the crucial influence of Kurt Weill on operas and musicals by Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein.
Theodor Adorno famously proclaimed that the model of Kurt Weill could not be repeated. Yet Weill's stage works set an inescapable precedent for composers on both sides of the Atlantic. Rebecca Schmid explores how Weill's formal innovations in particular laid the groundwork for operas and musicals by Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein, although both composers resisted or downplayed his aesthetic contribution to American tradition. Comparative analysis based on Harold Bloom's Anxiety of Influence and other modes of intertextuality reveals that the principles of Weill's opera reform would catalyze an indigenous movement in sophisticated, socially engaged music theatre.
Weill, Blitzstein, and Bernstein: A Study of Influence focuses on works that represent different phases of Weill's mission to renew the genre of opera, evolving from Die Dreigroschenoper to the musical play Lady in the Dark and the Broadway Opera Street Scene. Blitzstein and Bernstein in turn defied formal boundaries with The Cradle Will Rock, Regina, Trouble in Tahiti, Candide, and West Side Story - part of a short-lived movement in mid-twentieth century America that coincided with a renaissance for Weill's German-period works following the premiere of Blitzstein's translation, The Threepenny Opera, under Bernstein's baton. The unpublished A Pray by Blecht, for which Bernstein rejoined Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins, his collaborators on West Side Story, deepens the connection of Bernstein's aesthetic to Weill.
Theodor Adorno famously proclaimed that the model of Kurt Weill could not be repeated. Yet Weill's stage works set an inescapable precedent for composers on both sides of the Atlantic. Rebecca Schmid explores how Weill's formal innovations in particular laid the groundwork for operas and musicals by Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein, although both composers resisted or downplayed his aesthetic contribution to American tradition. Comparative analysis based on Harold Bloom's Anxiety of Influence and other modes of intertextuality reveals that the principles of Weill's opera reform would catalyze an indigenous movement in sophisticated, socially engaged music theatre.
Weill, Blitzstein, and Bernstein: A Study of Influence focuses on works that represent different phases of Weill's mission to renew the genre of opera, evolving from Die Dreigroschenoper to the musical play Lady in the Dark and the Broadway Opera Street Scene. Blitzstein and Bernstein in turn defied formal boundaries with The Cradle Will Rock, Regina, Trouble in Tahiti, Candide, and West Side Story - part of a short-lived movement in mid-twentieth century America that coincided with a renaissance for Weill's German-period works following the premiere of Blitzstein's translation, The Threepenny Opera, under Bernstein's baton. The unpublished A Pray by Blecht, for which Bernstein rejoined Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins, his collaborators on West Side Story, deepens the connection of Bernstein's aesthetic to Weill.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Rebecca Schmid
REBECCA SCHMID holds a PhD in musicology and media studies from Humboldt University, Berlin, and is an independent scholar with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century music.
Reviews
Convincingly demonstrates that Weill deserves a place in US musical theater history alongside the one that the two US-born figures in her title-especially Bernstein-already enjoy. Its impressive detail and...thoughtful analyses of music and text... [can] spark lively and thoughtful [classroom] discussion...[and add] to our growing understanding of the role Jewish figures played in shaping US music.
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Detailed comparisons between particular works, such as Candide and Die Dreigroschenoper, strengthen this rigorous account.
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Schmid's comprehensive archival research and revealing musical analysis offer new perspectives to support the many ways in which the "spectre of Weill" hovers gently over American opera.
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Sheds considerable light on a fascinating subject and is well worth reading [since] Schmid writes so well.
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Deserves a warm welcome from anybody with an interest in the emergence of 'serious' Broadway shows after the Second World War. Weill's fundamental role in this is explored thoroughly, and the significance of his influence is brought into the light for the first time. This really is a fine read. A fascinating and original study.
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Schmid traces the tutelage of Blitzstein to Bernstein and back to Weill through performance anecdotes, personal letters, and documentation by previous researchers. Schmid's research is sound [and] the book is full of diverting production history and insights into the lives and minds of the three composers and their close circles.
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
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Acknowledgments
vii -
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Introduction
1 -
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1 Why Influence? Anxiety and Other Modes of Intertextuality
11 -
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2 “Have You Seen My New Opera?” The Cradle Will Rock, Johnny Johnson, and Die Dreigroschenoper
39 -
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3 “Something Like Opera”: Regina, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, and Street Scene
70 -
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4 “Make Our Garden Grow”: Candide and Die Dreigroschenoper
98 -
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5 “This Isn’t Worth Drei Groschen”: West Side Story and Street Scene
118 -
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6 A Pray by Blecht: Revisiting the Lehrstück
146 -
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7 “The Saga of Lenny”: Trouble in Tahiti and Lady in the Dark
165 -
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Epilogue
181 -
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Bibliography
185 -
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Index
203
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 11, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781800109315
Original publisher:
University of Rochester Press
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781800109315
Keywords for this book
Kurt Weill; operas; musicals; Marc Blitzstein; Leonard Bernstein; Anxiety of Influence; Harold Bloom; Die Dreigroschenoper; Lady in the Dark; Street Scene; The Cradle Will Rock; Trouble in Tahiti; West Side Story; Candide; A Pray by Blecht
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
