Bernstein, Blitzstein and Brecht … it sounds a little like a law firm, doesn’t it?
But today, we celebrate the anniversary of an important musical partnership involving those three gentlemen.
Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein were two American composers who shared a passion for musical theater. Bertolt Brecht was a German poet and playwright perhaps best known here for his collaboration with the composer Kurt Weill on The Three Penny Opera.
The artistic careers of Bernstein, Blitzstein and Brecht came together on today’s date in 1952, when, as part of the First Festival of the Creative Arts held at Brandeis University, Leonard Bernstein conducted the premiere of a new English-language version of Three Penny Opera.
Blitzstein had seen the original 1928 production of Three Penny Opera when he was a student in Berlin, and some 20 years later had translated one of the show’s songs just for fun. He got the chance to perform his translation for Kurt Weill, and Weill was so impressed he encouraged Blitzstein to translate the entire work.
The Blitzstein version of the Three Penny Opera proved so successful that when it opened in an off-Broadway New York production, it ran for 2,707 performances.
Kurt Weill (1900-1950): Little Threepenny Music; London Symphony members; Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; CBS 44529