Re: Kurt Weill in NYC

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

It's interesting that Kurt Weill recently came up, and the question of his 
being a Jewish composer or not.  I just spent a couple of hours--and that 
wasn't enough--at a Lincoln Center music library (first floor) exhibition 
about him:  text/window cards/scores/some video 
fragments/photographs/letters & journals/etc./etc./etc. grouped into 6-8 
categories:  opera / musical comedy / "concept musicals" / incidental music 
and others I (pathetically) (can't)remember.  Very rich.  And worth getting 
to, if you're interested in him and can get there before it closes--first 
week of May, I think.  (Sorry.)

Relevant to our list:  OTOH, there's no "Jewish" section among the 6-8, and 
I don't think that's the curator's prejudice showing, either.  OTOH (n. same 
abbrev. for two different phrases), there *is* Jewish content and Jewish 
references at various points:  certainly in re "The Eternal Road" (and 
there's a brief video excerpt, and a brief interview--not with him--about 
it) and in re Holocaust- and Israel-related works he was involved in (sorry 
for that vague reference).  Maybe some others.  *I* certainly will have not 
the slightest problem about deducting the cost on my tax return--only it was 
free!  But there's always transportation ...

I felt, myself, a special connection on at least three grounds:  I found in 
my mother's house, as I advised the list, a (oversized, ambitious) program 
booklet from the original production of "The Eternal Road"--which, in truth, 
would probably have been desired for the exhibition if I'd made the contact 
with them when it began; I have an original-cast LP of "Three-Penny Opera" 
(one of the vitrines has a translation of "Mack the Knife" that they say is 
much more faithful to the original than the eventual pop song); and, as a 
boy, I was infatuated with the *movie* version (the play, but not the movie, 
figures in the exhibition) of "One Touch of Venus" and watched it maybe 20 
times in one week when it was shown, continually, on what was then called 
the "Million Dollar Movie" in New York City.  Years ago I watched it 
again--and I still find it charming.  I also understand why Frank Sinatra 
got unhinged over Ava Gardner.

--Robert Cohen (who is a little, himself, I think)




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