Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill (1900-1950), German American composer whose stage works on contemporary subjects skillfully integrate advanced musical techniques with elements of popular music.

Born in Dessau, Germany, Weill studied with the Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni and the German composer Engelbert Humperdinck. With the German poet and dramatist Bertolt Brecht, Weill created a new form of musical theater in two satiric-didactic, musically brilliant works, both of which won international acclaim: Die Dreigroschenoper (1928; English production, The Threepenny Opera,1954), a modern paraphrase of The Beggar's Opera (1728) by the British writer John Gay; and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1929; English production, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,1970).

After Weill's works were termed subversive and banned in Germany, Weill and his wife, the actor Lotte Lenya, went to Paris in 1933 and then to the United States in 1935. For the Broadway musical theater Weill composed Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), Lady in the Dark (1941), and One Touch of Venus (1943). His other works include Street Scene (1947), Lost in the Stars (1949), and the folk opera Down in the Valley (1948).