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Chapter 30 - Kurt Weill

from Part V - Connections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2024

Elizabeth A. Wells
Affiliation:
Mount Allison University, Canada
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Summary

Bernstein mentioned Kurt Weill on only a few occasions, and yet his career as a composer for the stage followed a similar path. In particular, he created works that transcend the boundaries between opera and commercial theatre, tackling socio-political topics while writing melodies that reached the mainstream. This chapter traces the influence of Weill on Bernstein, who encountered Die Dreigroschenoper as a college student and would go on to conduct the premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s English adaptation, The Threepenny Opera, in 1952. The specific aesthetic traits which Bernstein absorbed from Weill’s scores are illustrated through comparative analyses of numbers from Trouble in Tahiti, Candide and West Side Story with, respectively, Lady in the Dark, Die Dreigroschenoper and Street Scene. Motivic, harmonic and structural elements of intertextuality reveal that Weill’s formal experimentation tilled the soil for works of music theatre that could be both indigenous and worldly, sophisticated and accessible.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Kurt Weill
  • Edited by Elizabeth A. Wells, Mount Allison University, Canada
  • Book: Leonard Bernstein in Context
  • Online publication: 06 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108891349.031
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  • Kurt Weill
  • Edited by Elizabeth A. Wells, Mount Allison University, Canada
  • Book: Leonard Bernstein in Context
  • Online publication: 06 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108891349.031
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Kurt Weill
  • Edited by Elizabeth A. Wells, Mount Allison University, Canada
  • Book: Leonard Bernstein in Context
  • Online publication: 06 April 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108891349.031
Available formats
×