As Lenya recovers slowly from the shock of Weill's death, George Davis and many others encourage her to return to performing. She is reluctant, but builds a string of successes in the U.S. that push The Threepenny Opera and The Seven Deadly Sins into the repertory and make her a cult figure. She returns to Germany after twenty years in 1955 and makes a series of Weill recordings that do much to re-establish his reputation.
Read Text-Only Chronology1951
3 February
The program is repeated 17 February at Town Hall and 31 March at the 92nd Street Y. She sings most of the female characters' musical numbers in a concert version of Die Dreigroschenoper. This is her first public performance since The Firebrand of Florence (and since Weill's death)
Town Hall window card (cropped)
Town Hall program cover
6 February
7 July
31 October
As in Candle in the Wind (1941), Anderson has written a part expressly for her; other members of the creative team succeed in having her replaced during tryouts, but Anderson insists that she play the role on Broadway. This time, she draws praise from New York critics, but the show runs only 30 performances.
Lenya, Maxwell Anderson, and Helen Shields
Opening night program
1952
23 February
14 June
This first performance of Blitzstein’s work provokes interest among producers and agents, but no one is willing to stage the piece without adapting the script or altering the score.
Leonard Bernstein (left) conducting Marc Blitzstein's adaptation of The Threepenny Opera in concert with Lenya (center) as Jenny
Excerpt sung by Lenya live in concert at Brandeis University, 1952
Lenya as Jenny in the concert performance of Blitzstein's adaptation
Brandeis University, 1952
1953
22 March
October
Capalbo remembered later that he had to sing some of the songs to convince Lenya that he was the right person; he said, “I guess I'm the only director who ever had to do a singing audition to get the job.” He went on, “Lenya said, ‘Where did you learn to sing like that?’ I said, ‘From you.’ She said to Marc, ‘That's the man to do Threepenny Opera.’”
1954
10 March
Initially she refuses to accept the role, but George Davis along with Blitzstein and Capalbo convince her otherwise. Several weeks later, MGM makes the original cast recording, an instant best-seller, and the show takes New York by storm. By the time it closes in November 1961, it has set a record (since broken) for the longest run of a musical.
Scott Merrill (Macheath) and Lenya (Jenny) in The Threepenny Opera, Theater de Lys, 1954
Excerpt sung by Lenya, 1954
Cast recording cover released in 1954 by MGM Reocrds
Lenya gets ready for a performance in her dressing room
20 July
She plays opposite her co-star in Threepenny, Scott Merrill.
1955
3 April
Lenya writes to a friend: “You can’t find a single Nazi in Germany! . . . It was all a dream.”
7 July
28 September
She and Armstrong do a take together, which is not released until 1982. Armstrong’s rendition is a hit and inaugurates a long string of successful pop recordings of “Mack the Knife."
Lenya and Louis Armstrong with the band during rehearsals for the recording of "Mack the Knife"
Excerpt of Lenya and Armstrong singing a take together
Armstrong coaching Lenya for the recording, 1955
Armstrong and Lenya recording "Mack the Knife" for Columbia Records
26 November
The libretto is translated by Lys Symonette, Weill’s assistant on Broadway from 1945 to 1950. Symonette and her husband, baritone Randolph Symonette, remain close friends of Lenya until her death; Lys becomes indispensable in Lenya’s last years as accompanist, musical advisor, and factotum.
1956
1 April
It is the first and only time Tony Awards have been given for an off-Broadway production. Lenya leaves the cast around this time.
14 August
During this trip to Germany, Lenya meets Anna Krebs of Philips Records, and the two become devoted friends.
8 September
Because of the changes to Lenya’s voice since 1933, all movements in which she sings must be transposed down a fourth. The work effectively disappeared shortly after its premiere; Lenya’s recording reintroduces it to audiences. Within ten years, it becomes a standard work both onstage and in the concert hall; now it is one of Weill and Brecht’s most popular.
Album jacket of Die sieben Todsünden for Philips
Excerpt sung by Lenya, 1956
Excerpt sung by Lenya, 1956
11 November
20 December
The connection between Drew and Lenya is soon established and remains very close for nearly 20 years. Drew becomes indispensable to Lenya’s efforts to increase respect for Weill’s music and arrange further recordings and performances.
Lenya with David Drew at Brook House, late 1950's
Letter from Lenya to Drew, 1957
1957
August
6 October
Lenya and Davis meet David Drew in person for the first time.
25 November
1958
15 January
The album cover of the Philips/Columbia recording of Die Dreigroschenoper was designed by Ben Shahn
Excerpt sung by Lenya, 1958
Excerpt sung by Lenya, 1958
29 June
August
The poems are selected in part by Professor Guy Stern, who goes on to be a close friend for many years.
4 December
Translation by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman; Allegra Kent plays Anna II (the dancing Anna). The first staged revival of the work since 1936 is reconceived by Balanchine. Lenya is lionized by the New York press.
George Balanchine (left), Edward Villella, and Lenya (right), prepare for the American premiere of The Seven Deadly Sins at the New York City Ballet, 1958
Lenya (Anna I) snaps Allegra Kent's (Anna II) picture, New York City Ballet production
Lenya talks about the 1958 New York City Ballet production of The Seven Deadly Sins, 1970
1959
15 February
A program of songs with orchestra in the first half, including songs from Weill’s German and American shows and three of his four Walt Whitman settings, and Die Dreigroschenoper (with other singers) in the second. Maurice Levine conducts. As with nearly all of Lenya’s concerts, she performs with orchestra, her consistent preference.
In the 1970s, Richard Ely created a retrospective poster for Lenya's Carnegie Hall appearance
Rehearsal for Carnegie Hall concert. From left: Maurice Edwards, Polyna Stoska, Didi Van Eyck, Ludwig Donath, Lenya, and conductor Maurice Levine
Program for the concert
Summer
11 November
1960
7 February
April - August
She also gives a concert in Munich, appears on a television program with Theodor Adorno, and records Happy End for Columbia/Philips.
Lenya with Karin von Aroldingen (Anna II) in the German stage premiere of Die sieben Todsünden, 1960
The Frankfurt production made use of a chalkboard to record the name of each sin, here "Envy"
Excerpt sung by Lenya in Munich, 1960
August
18 October
Several members of the original New York cast take part in the production; Lenya remains in the cast for about a month. While in Los Angeles, she receives a letter from Bertha Case, the U.S. agent for the Brecht estate, and begins a close relationship with her.