Kurt Weill studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck and Ferruccio Busoni after he was born in Germany in 1900. In 1926, he married singer Lotte Lenya and began working with playwright Bertolt Brecht the following year.
Brecht and Weill collaborated on a number of notable works, including Mahagonny-Songspiel in 1927 and Die Dreigroschenoper, or The Threepenny Opera, in 1928. Though they worked together on Die Sieben Todsünden, The Seven Deadly Sins in English, in 1934, Der Jasager was their last collaboration during that time period.
After attracting the Nazi party’s attention, Weill and Lenya relocated to New York in 1935. Kurt Weill was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music: Scoring of a Musical Picture in 1945 for his work on Knickerbocker Holiday, his first big hit, with Werner R. Heymann.
Before his untimely death in 1950, he had a string of hit Broadway musicals under his belt, including Lady in the Dark, One Touch of Venus, and Lost in the Stars. Most people associate Alan Jay Lerner’s work with Frederick Loewe, with whom he collaborated on Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot. However, Lerner collaborated with Weill on the Broadway musical Love Life in 1948, which was a commercial failure. Street Scene, a “urban folk opera” with a play by Elmer Rice and lyrics by poet Langston Hughes, was another interesting collaboration.
Lotte Lenya commissioned composer Marc Blitzstein to adapt Dreigroschenoper into English in order to preserve his legacy after his death. It first opened in 1954 and quickly became a hit. In fact, Weill’s song ” Mack the Knife” from Die Dreigroschenoper has appeared on the soundtracks of many films, including Johnny Be Good in 1988, Alice in 1990, Love Potion No. 9 and Shadows and Fog in 1992, Quiz Show in 1994, The Butcher Boy in 1997, At First Sight and Swing in 1999, Lucky Numbers and What Women Want in 2000, Ben Webster in 2003, Shark Tales and Beyond the Sea in 2004, and Volando Voy in