The next few months hold a number of stagings and concerts to watch out for. See our performance calendar for a complete list of upcoming Weill and Blitzstein events.
Concerts
13 January 2015: Dawn Upshaw (photo at right) sings with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva. “My Ship” from Lady in the Dark will be on the program.
6 March 2015: The Vienna Radio Symphony will give an all-Weill program of music composed for radio, including some hard-to-find works: Der Lindberghflug/Der Ozeanflug, The Ballad of Magna Carta, and Down in the Valley.
18 April 2015: The annual Lotte Lenya Competition culminates in a concert given by the finalists that is open to the public. See this year’s top performers at Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.
6-7 May 2015: The Collegiate Chorale closes its season at Carnegie Hall with a U.S. premiere, Weill’s The Road of Promise, derived from The Eternal Road by Ed Harsh. Soloists include Anthony Dean Griffey (photo at left), Mark Delavan, and Philip Cutlip; Lenya Competition laureates Justin Hopkins, Megan Marino, and Lauren Michelle are also on the bill. Tony Award nominee Danny Burstein will handle the lead non-singing role. Ted Sperling conducts the Chorale and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Productions
10 January 2015: Revival of The Firebrand of Florence at the Dresden Staatsoperette. 2013 saw the German premiere of Weill and Ira Gershwin’s rarely performed Broadway operetta (1945). Greeted with acclaim, the production returns for four performances in January and March.
10 March 2015: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at the Royal Opera House, London (poster at right). A brand-new production by director John Fulljames featuring a new translation by Jeremy Sams. This is one of the events of the season. You won’t want to miss it if you’re anywhere near London, or even if you aren’t–HD broadcasts will be available across Europe and the U.S.
14 March 2015: Marc Blitzstein’s hallucinatory one-act opera Triple-Sec will be on the boards at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Triple-Sec saw over 100 performances on Broadway in 1930 as part of the Garrick Gaieties; George Gershwin was a big fan. The Modern Art Ensemble offers the European premiere, with Gershwin’s Blue Monday rounding out the double bill.
24 April 2015: Lady in the Dark opens at Lyric Stage, Dallas, to run through 3 May. This historic show with a “dream” score by Weill and Ira Gershwin and a book by Moss Hart set Broadway on its ear in 1941. The production will feature Weill’s original orchestrations.
No Weill season is complete without several performances of his best-known work, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera). A complete list of 2015 performances can be found here, and we’ve selected a handful from around the U.S. and Europe to whet your appetite:
Saarländisches Staatstheater, Saarbrücken. In repertory through 15 May 2015.
The Berliner Ensemble brings back their influential production, directed by Robert Wilson, for two performances only, 13-14 January 2015, in Berlin.
The company A Noise Within offers twenty performances in repertory, opening 15 February 2015 in Pasadena.
The Clarence Brown Theatre, Knoxville. A continuous run from 16 April through 3 May 2015.
New Line Theatre, St. Louis. 28 May – 20 June 2015 in a continuous run.
Last but not least, the 23rd annual Kurt Weill Fest runs this year from 27 February though 15 March in Dessau, Germany. The festival features nearly sixty events, including several notable performances:
28 February: “Lights on Broadway” with Lenya Competition winners Alen Hodzovic and Rebecca Jo Loeb teaming up with crack Weill interpreter James Holmes.
1-2 March: Concert performance of Die Dreigroschenoper with HK Gruber and the Ensemble Modern.
5 March: Four Walt Whitman Songs with orchestra conducted by Antony Hermus. The program will also feature a new composition by the Chair of the Foundation’s Board, Ed Harsh.
15 March: The closing concert of the Fest boasts music by Richard Strauss and a concert performance of Weill’s early one-act opera, Royal Palace.
