Biographical/Historical Information
The composer Kurt Weill was born into a religious Jewish family in Dessau, Germany in 1900. He began his career in the early 1920's, after a musical childhood and several years of study in Berlin. His first opera, The Protagonist (Georg Kaiser), was performed in April 1926, but it was his work for the musical theater with Bertolt Brecht that made him famous all over Europe. Kurt Weill married actress Lotte Lenya in 1926, and they maintained a close relationship throughout his life. He fled Nazi Germany first to Paris (1933-35) and then to the U.S., continuing to produce a large catalogue of works. Kurt Weill died of heart failure in 1950.
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Citation
Kurt Weill, Leo Baeck Institute, F 3483.