Word: weill
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht refined the characters that Gay created, while Kurt Weill provided a tart and tangy score that is one of the marvels of the musical theater. The juice of art and life, however, flows richly enough through the original Beggar's Opera. The dominant motif-Gay's as well as Brecht's-is that money is thicker than blood. By now, the characters are classic, and they all live up to their names: Peachum (Gordon Cornell), the informer and fence; Lockit (Ralston Hill), the venal jailer of Newgate; and MacHeath (Timothy Jerome), the saucy...
...Jacques Brel playing at Mather House is an altogether headier brew. Instead of light Parisienne melodies Brel's tones are cloudy and foreboding--substantial with the threat of storm. The music has a vaguely northern flavor, almost Germanic as if it had some spiritual connection with the songs Kurt Weill wrote for Brecht. But there is also a carnival air, with melodies spinning faster and faster up and then down...
September Song's first section consists of a large chunk of Threepenny Opera. The cast-does a fairly good interpretation of this masterpiece of the Brecht-Weill collaboration, although Marc Blitzstein's creaky English translations, especially of "How to Survive" and "Pirate Jenny," are beginning to show their age. Blitzstein's lyrics do not fit the rhythm of the music as well as they should, and it may well be time for someone to try his hand at a new version. Blitzstein's "Mack the Knife," of course, will never be replaced, but the rest of his songs are uneven...
...case you missed the revival of the Weill-Maxwell Anderson Lost in the Stars which passed through town a few weeks ago, September Song gives you a chance at least to hear some of the numbers. Unfortunately, most of the songs in this show depend on their context, but "Train to Johannesburg" and "Cry the Beloved Country" communicate some of the force of the original...
...YEAR when Charlie Chaplin has finally been readmitted to the country, it is equally refreshing to see another great artist revived from a politically-imposed obscurity. Weill's music is durable, his lyricists talented, his message irrepressible. Perhaps some of his ideas rub off or the suburban crowd. You never can tell...