Who are the musicians in the Weimar Period?: 3D Gallery

Kurt Weill

Born in 1900 and lived until 1950, he was a German composer that was a leading composer in the Weimar period. He had decided to leave to America after the Weimar period as he was a Jewish composer.

Threepenny Opera

One of the musicals that Kurt Weill had produced with Bertolt Brecht. It
is a translation of John Gay’s 18^th century English play “Beggars
Opera”. The entire music score for the opera was written by Kurt Weill and is a considered a Socialists critique on the Capitalist world.

The play initially had a very bad reception, but it became a success and continued to play on for the next two years with around 400 shows. By the time Germany had become Nazi Germany, the play had already been translated into several different languages and performed all over Europe.

Zaubernacht

A 1922 ‘ballet pantomime’ that was one of the early works of Kurt Weill. It was his first music that was heard on stage to have survived, his very first commission and the first piece of his works that was heard in the United States after he had moved there.

Surbaya Johnny

A song featured in the musical ‘Happy End’ wherein the song is sung by Lilian to Bill, upset that he has gone back to his old life of crime. The musical is a three-act comedy musical and had first opened in Berlin, 1929. It had soon closed down after 7 performances. It premiered again in Broadway and closed down after 75 performances.

Lotte Lenya

The wife of Kurt Weill and a famous singer, diseuse and actress in the Weimar Period. She was still training in 1920 and had started her career in 1922, wherein she decided to audition for roles in Weill's different musicals. In the late Weimar period, she was busy in film and theatre works, particularly those that were written by Weill-Brecht.

Later on she moved to America with Weill and starred in several different movies there.

Mack The Knife

She starred in the “Threepenny Opera”, a musical written by her husband
and won a Tony Award for her role. She played as Jenny, whom was a prostitute that had been romantically involved with the main character, Macheath, and was bribed to turn Mack in.

Lotte and Weill

They first met when she auditioned for a role in his stage score
“Zaubernacht” but had declined. Later on she accepted the part of Jenny and the
pair became close and finally married then. They divorced later on, only to be
remarried after a few years.

Piano Sonata, Opus 1

The composers first set of published works after finally getting a teacher and being taught by Arnold Schönberg. Before that, he had taught himself music and started composing at the age of 15. Arnold Schönberg had completed his teachings with the Piano Sonata, Op. 1.

Vier Stücke, Opus 5. For Clarinet and Piano

One of his many compositions, this set of compositions is unlike the
others such that it the composer’s only true miniatures. This composition was made for the clarinet and the piano and these set of pieces were finished in 1913, however they were only published years afterwards.

Alban Berg

Alban Berg was an Austrian composer whose composition style incorporated both romantic
lyricism with dodecaphony, also known as the twelve-tone style. He lived from 1885-1935 and is the most widely performed opera composer among the Second Viennese School.

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Who are the musicians in the Weimar Period?