"On the 2nd of March 1900," "Kurt Julian Weill is born in Dessau." "His father, Albert Weill, is a cantor and RE teacher." "His mother, Emma, comes from an old German family of Rabbis." "They live in the parish house of the newly built synagogue." "His father often takes Kurt there to play the organ." "In 1938 the synagogue is destroyed during the Nazi progroms... as is the Jewish community." "Today, Jews who immigrated from the Ukraine... have built a new community." "Kurt has 2 older brothers and a younger sister." "The siblings are very close, they continue to support each other..." "Kurt is an unobtrusive pupil only interested in his music." "Occasionally he joins his friends for rowing on the river." "He is either busy composing or helping his dad with the choir." "Weill's expressive melodic style can already be traced, most clearly in a cycle of 5 Jewish chants "Ofrahs Songs"." "While his schoolmates are at war, he is totally devoted to his music." "His family now calls him "the composer in the attic"." "The musical director of the "Ducal Court Theatre", ...takes Weill under his wings." "The Duke hires Weill, to teach his nieces how to play the piano." "While food is in short supply, his wages consist of plush dinners... and flower bouquets, which he gives to his mum." "It is nice to be here where Weill taught the little ones ...to play the piano." "It wasn't easy in the beginning ... because Weill was very demanding." "But his music was so important and concise... that Strehler wanted me to sing Kurt Weill." "But before I was thrilled by Brecht, I was fascinated by Weill's music." "To a singer, the music is always more immediate than the text." "I heard Weill for the first time... when I was a young girl about 40 or 45 years ago." "I tried to expand my knowledge about him, because Strehler wanted me to sing Kurt Weill." "Dr. Juergen Schebera Weill Expert" "Milva The Sailors' Tango" "In May 191 8 Weill begins studying composition." "His teacher is Engelbert Humperdinck." "As the son of a cantor, and with his conservative background, he is highly suspicious of the November Revolution." "But as he is living next to a station... he is delighted about the public transport strikes." "Now he can work on his compositions for 1 6 hours a day." "After 2 years of study Weill wants to quit composing." "But the crisis is over when Ferruccio Busoni comes to Berlin." "He becomes Weill's most influencial teacher." "In 1924 Weill meets the wellknown dramatist Georg Kaiser." "By then Lotte Lenya, a young actress, had been living in Kaiser's house... for 6 months." "Welcome to Fangschleuse." "Your arrival is similar to Kurt Weill's in 1924, when Lotte Lenya came to pick him up." "He was going to meet Germany's most famous playwright Kaiser." "He wanted him to write the libretto for his first opera, commissioned by the "Dresdener Staatsoper"." "After Kaiser had agreed, he told Weill to get the S-Bahn... to Fangschleuse, walk down to the lake, and get to his house by boat." "Kaiser's desk was over there, next to the gable window." "They had a good view of the Peetzsee, their model for "Der Silbersee", which they finished in 1932." "It was their last co-production." "It's about 2 unemployed youngsters who want to kill themselves, but are saved by an old legend:" "that the lake can freeze, even in summer." "So the 2 of them cross it by foot." ""The Silbersee carries those,"" ""who need to get on"." "Kathrin Angerer I know the kind of pain the song is about." "I wouldn't have felt this way a few years ago." "That's what I like about it." "I think there are a lot of Surabaya Johnnys around." "In 1924 when Weill and Lenya... crossed the lake, she had to do the rowing." "Now I'll take you to the house of Kaiser." "Kathrin Angerer Surabaya Johnny I had just turned sixteen that season when you came up from Burma to stay." "And you told me I ought to travel with you, you were sure it would be okay." "When I asked how you earned your living, I can still hear what you said to me:" "you had some kind of job with the railway, had nothing to do with the sea." "You said a lot, Johnny, all one bog lie, Johnny." "You cheated me blind, Johnny... from the minute we met. I hate you so, Johnny, when you stand there grinning J." "Surabaya Johnny, no one's meaner than you." "Surabaya Johnny, my God, and I still love you so!" "Surabaya Johnny, no one's meaner than you." "You have not heart, Johnny, and I still love you so!" "At the start every day was Sunday, till we went on our way one fine night." "And before two more weeks were over, you thought nothing I did was right." "So we trekked up and down through Punjab, from the source of the river to the sea:" "When I look at my face in the mirror, there's an old woman staring back at me." "You didn't want love, Johnny, you wanted cash, Johnny, but I saw your lips, Johnny, and that was that." "You wanted it all, Johnny, I gave you more, Johnny," "Surabaya Johnny, no one's meaner than you." "Surabaya Johnny, my God, and I still love you so!" "Surabaya Johnny, why am I feeling so blue?" "You have not heart, Johnny, and I still love you so!" "I would never have thought of asking where you got that peculiar name, but from one end of the coast to the other you were known everywhere we came." "And one day in a two bit flophouse, "l'll wake up to the roar of the sea;"" "and you'll leave without one word of warning, on the ship waiting down the key." "You have not heart, Johnny, you're just a louse, Johnny." "How can you go, Johnny, and leave me flat!" "You're still my love, Johnny, like the day we met, Johnny," "Take that damn pipe out of your mouth, you dog." "Surabaya Johnny, no one's meaner than you." "Surabaya Johnny, my God, and I still love you so!" "Surabaya Johnny, why am I feeling so blue?" "You have no heart, Johnny, and I still love you so!" "For the first time in his life, Weill is in love." "But Lenya, was used to have a promiscuous lifestyle, soon she gets bored of his jealousy and leaves him." "Weill is desperate." "He promises to let her have her way, and all the freedom she desires." "They get married a year later." "Kaiser is very fond of the two of them." "He works closely with Weill, they have just finished... their first one-act opera." "It was probably Kaiser who suggested... they'd move in with each other and leave their wretched little rooms." "Just like any other Berlin backyard." "Probably one of the better ones." "So this is the back view." ""Pension Hassforth", Luisenplatz." "I read that their room was really dark." "The entrance to the guest-house." "Thank you for seeing us." "No problem, you said you were coming." ""So, this is it, "Pension Hassforth"." "Right." "I'll show you the room." "As I said..." "So this was the small room..." "...where they had their bed." "There used to be a dividing wall, which they took out." "The left window was part of the toilet." "The room was really narrow." "He used to work and compose in the big room next to this one." "Lenya told me that he used to send her away straight after breakfast, telling her it was time for his music." "Then they had lunch later, and he sent her out again afterwards." "After a couple of weeks she went up to him asking:" ",So, what do you think we are doing with each other, when you keep on sending me to the little room all day long?"" "His profound reply was:" ""My music is the first, you're the second."" "Lenya would not be happy with being reduced... to either housewife or femme fatale." "What she couldn't get from Kurt  she found elsewhere." "I can sing the whole song with bright eyes." "In Berlin, lights get switched on early." "You can see a lot of things, illuminated or not." "You can sing the song like that." "But if you take a look at the notes, his intention becomes clear." "His accents include dissonant achords, ... like real F-G inversions." "That's obviously where his emphasis is." "Stefanie Wuest Berlin in Lights-Song" "To Weill's friends their marriage looks like a facade." "Kurt drowns himself in his music, Lenya has affairs with various men and women in Berlin's roaring twenties." "They decide not to have any children." "In April 1927 Weill meets Brecht." "Their first co-production is the songplay "Mahagonny"... commissioned for the Baden-Baden "Festival Of German Chamber Music"." "The audience is outraged when Lenya sings "Oh, Moon Of Alabama"." "In response, the singers hold up posters with anti-capitalist slogans." "Lenya's is the only non-political one- she fights "for Weill"." "When E.J. Aufricht becomes director of the "Theater am Schiffbauerdamm", he is looking for a sensation." "In April 1928 he meets Brecht, who is renowned for scandals." "Brecht suggests an adaption of "The Beggar's Opera"." "Aufricht agrees." "Brecht and Weill have 4 months only until the premiere on 31 .8.1928." "There is some film material shot in the backyard of the theatre, including Lenya, who is casted as Jenny, the whore." "Silent Footage, 1928" "The final rehearsal is a disaster." "Brecht has to rewrite some songs." "Weill fights for his music when director Engel makes cuts." "Lenya's name does not appear in the programme, Weill is outraged." "He rush along the theatre until they insert her name." "The curtain rises after all." "During the first 30 minutes, the audience is deadly silent." "But the tide turns with the "Kanonensong"." "The "3-Penny-Opera" turns out to be the biggest theatrical success of the 20's." "It is played "en suite" for nearly a year." "A play about beggars and thieves caters to the "Zeitgeist", on the eve of the world economic crisis." "Germany is in a 3-Penny-Fever." "The songs become popular melodies." "20 records are released in Germany and another 1 2 internationally, featuring songs from the play." "Weill buys his first car, and they move into a bigger flat." "Lenya becomes a well-known actress." "The film, shot in French and German, is a success in both countries." "Lotte Lenya The 3-Penny-Opera Film, 1931" "In 1931 , after "Happy End", "Lindberghflug" and "Der Jasager"," "Brecht and Weill have a falling out during the rehearsals for" ""Rise And Fall Of Mahagonny" in Berlin." "They fight about money and the political contents of texts." "Behind all the question if whether Weill is composing for Brecht, or Brecht is writing for Weill." "Brecht wants to:" ""kick this faulty Richard Strauss... out of the theatre."" "Weill states:" ""l will never compose "Das Kapital"." "Weill realises, that Lenya distances herself more and more from her "frog"." "He fights for her love and gives her a house in Kleinmachnow  for her birthday." "The couple moves in, in March 1932." "Lenya accepted an offer, to do a "Mahagonny" production in Vienna." "There she met a tenor Otto Pasetti, and ran off with him, leaving Weill behind." "One day Weill finds an anonymous threatening letter in his mailbox:" ",We don't need Jews in Kleinmachnow."" "The Nazis have taken up disrupting his plays." "He writes to Lenya in Vienna asking for advice:" ",During the last weeks I realized that I'll break down... if I can't work." "Work stops me falling into depression."" "2 weeks after Hitler's seizure of power..." ""Der Silbersee" premiers in Leipzig." "Weill faces a storm of protest... against his music from the Nazis." "After the last performance, at the end of February," "Weill's music is not to be heard in Germany for the next 1 2 years." "On the 20th of March 1933, his friend, Walter Steintal, urges him to leave the country because his name is on the lists." "Caspar Neher, his friend, whose wife had a wild affair with Weill at the time," "comes here to pick Weill up on the 21 st of March." "Neher drops him off at the French border." "Weill never returned to Germany." "Weill is well known in Paris, due to the 3-Penny-Film, and a successful "Evening of Weill" in 1932 at "Salle Gaveau"." "Newsreel, 1932 l am delighted that the "Societe Musicale La Serenade"... invited me to Paris." "I take it as an opportunity to present my Oeuvres "Mahagonny"... and "Der Jasager", to the French public," ""Mahagonny" was actually created before the "3-Penny-Opera"" "Therefore it's musical style will be familiar to you." "The second Oeuvre, "Jasager", is a student's opera." "A little opera, performed by students only." "Students from 1 3 schools will be involved... in today's performance." ""Youkali" is a great song because of it's visionary quality." "It's about the land of dreams, where all wishes become true." "It's about paradise, this longing in all of us." "But in the end it is made clear that there is no "Youkali"." "The Countess de Noailles takes Weill under her wings, and puts him up in her townhouse." "Here, he receives his first order." "An Englishman, Edward James wants him to compose a ballet... for his wife, dancer Tilly Losch including vocals for Lenya..." "Weill contacts Brecht for the libretto." "Brecht leaves his Swiss exile for Paris." "The Premiere of "Seven Deadly Sins", on June 1 7th 1933... at "Theatre de Champs Elysees" is a flop." "After having been in Paris for 4 months, Weill had to face... a nasty scene, when 3 parts of his last piece "Der Silbersee", were played at a concert." "While the music was playing composer Flaurent Schmitt... got up, shouting: "We don't need Jewish music in Paris."" "Weill wants to be accepted as a composer, he doesn't want anybody pitying him for living in exile." "He breaks down, his chronic skin condition gets worse." "He goes to Italy to meet his lover, Erika Neher." "Lenya divorces him." "His publisher stops all royalty payments." "Lenya cruises the casinos of the Riviera with Otto Pasetti." "She wants a child with Pasetti." ""That would hurt me," Weill replies." "She understands." "Nobody mentions his connection to Madeleine Milhaud." "I immediately told Kurt, there's a telegram from Berlin." "He said: "Oh, I completely forgot that my dog is being sent over. "" "We drove to "Gare du Nord"." "I was surprised when Kurt told the people working there to hide." "But they did, without knowing why either." "They then got this enormous box out of the train." "And out he came, a huge German Sheepdog." "The first thing he did, was to release himself." "He was a good dog, but he had been in that box for more than 1 4 hours." "And he was absolutely delighted to see his owner." "If someone has to leave his country under these circumstances, the first thing you do is sticking to the simple rules of hospitality." "That's what it was like." "That's it." "He knew we'd be there for him in times of need." "Our relationship was based on this ,contract of trust"." "My dad had died around this time, my mother had a hard time coping." "Kurt was as much involved in our lives as we were in his." "In a certain sense that's it." "He wasn't involved in everything." "He was fascinated by American music." "Something he could neither find in Paris, nor anywhere else in Europe, he found on Broadway." "It was his plan, to become an American composer." "And that's what he was, in 1940, in New York, when we saw him again." "He had a ring on his finger..." "He was a married man, and an American composer." "Weill is out of work." "His depression gets worse." "He is looking for peace of mind in Louveciennes, his new home." "He takes his dog on long walks along the old tree-lined roads." "They gave him comfort, like reading the letters of Verdi." "He tells Lenya: "The letters of Verdi are my only comfort, awful analogies."" "Did you know that Auguste Renoir used to live here?" "And Gaul Muench on the corner." " That's new." "In Holland and in Europe we knew nothing about Weill." ""3-Penny-Opera", "Mahagonny" and "Happy End"- that was it." "Well, and then once you start, that's it." "You can't stop." "His work was immensely political, in America as well." "He was important for the resistance, with his "Lunchtime Follies"" "And he did "Salute To France" with Berry Meridith, political work." "He was the first person in America, who said that the Germans... should do something against Hitler." "He composes French chansons for the musical "Marie Galante" in Louveciennes, like the famous "Youkali" and "Train du Ciel"." "That's where he expresses his dream about a better future." "Since 1933 Weill has been commissioned, to do the music for "The Eternal Road"." "He buys a ticket for 2 to New York." "Lenya agrees to go with him." "They arrive at the 1 0.9.1935, ready for a new start." "The costly production of "The Eternal Road" is delayed." "Weill has to find work." "He organizes a Weill evening, ... it's a flop." "Weill starts working with the avantgarde "Group Theatre."" "He composes the music for "Johnny Johnson", an American Schweijk." "It's a flop." "They can no longer pay their hotel bills." "Kurt Weill, 1938" "He never raised his voice." "We had a rehearsal once... where he told me, whenever he disliked something." "I had to tell the conductor." "At one point though, he disliked something so much... that he went up himself and whispered something in his ear." "He never critizised anybody in front of all the others." "He whispered something in his ear, came back to me and sat down again." "Then he said:" ""Lets try that part again."" "There was the same mistake again." "So, he went up to him again, whispering in his ear again." "They tried it for the 3rd time." "And it still wasn't right." "He got really furious then and said loudly: "Nein!"" "That was the only time ever that I heard him speak German." "That's "Love Life", one of the best musicals he wrote." "Very influential." "I knew all of them." "He was obsessed with music." "He worked himself to death." "He always worked everything out by himself." "He never lost his temper, he wasn't that kind of person." "And the situation with Germany, affected him very much as well." "Like after a love affair, when you don't want to look at it anymore." "He didn't want to have anything to do with Germany anymore." "He never spoke German after that." "We have a Weill family tree in the foundation," "The family exists until the 1 5th century." "They all were rabbis." "They wouldn't admit it but they pinched a lot from him, especially Sondheim." "Nobody talks about it, though." "But Weill will be appreciated one day, even in America." "That is a wonderful picture." "Lenya has an affair with the librettist of "Johnny Johnson"." "Weill writes love letters to Erika Neher in Germany." "She drops him." "On 19.1 .1937, Weill and Lenya re-marry." "Newsreel, 1937" ""The Eternal Road" finally premiers in January 1937." "It's an artistic success, but not a financial one." "They have to take it off." "From his parents in Palestine Weill got Jewish lithurgical music, which he had put into his score for "The Eternal Road"." "He supports the Zionist movement and works for them." "Newsreel, 1941" "Weill goes to Palestine to see his parents." "President Weizman asks him to orchestrate the "Hatikvah", Israel's national hymn." "His first lithurgical piece... a Kiddush for Park Ave." "Synagogue, is dedicated to his father." "David Lefkowitz Kiddush" "In 1941 he makes on Broadway his first unpolitical play." "The musical "Lady ln The Dark" runs 550 times." "Broadway record." "Paramount pays a record sum for the film rights, but they change the score." ""ln 1943 "One Touch Of Venus", adapting a song from "Happy End", is even more successful than "Lady ln The Dark"." "Weill is popular now." "He caters to the wishes of American society." "He's an ardent patriot and becomes an American citizen." "He often stays in New York's "Algonquin", a premier adress for artists." "It is famous for it's cabaret shows, which remind Weill of Berlin... in the twenties, when he wrote "American" songs with Brecht." "In his American exile, Weill constantly found himself... in a kind of hustling position, asking for the next job." "Where to get the next job from." "That's what his letters are about." "Of course, it challenges one's integrity." "And if you're able to stick to your musical position." "To what extent you take on board the mechanisms of business." "It's rather peculiar that some of the agencies still exist." "When he tells Lenya not to sign anything, because they'd pull a fast one, that's exactly the same agency, I had problems with some years ago." "It's all about tough, capitalist American structures." "If Kurt hade gone with the tycoons, the next turn of the screw... would have been a ,yes" or ,no" for each piece of work he'd deliver." "One day he'd been making a musical version of "Snow White"." "Probably not the worst thing." "I think Kurt Weill probably was one of the first, in this context, who took into account medial influences in compositions." "He looked at what was available through radio, through other acoustic media, and how it influenced composition." "The interesting thing is to learn about the interpretation ... of this connotation" "To see, in which way a slide guitar is used for about the first time... in a composition like that." "And there's your connection:" ",This reminds me of that... and that reminds me of this..." But of course they meant... something completely different than they do today." "So, that's a different..." "That's why I call it "flavour"." "With Weill, it has a lot to do with "flavour", call it aroma." "It's as if an aroma is the key to your memories." "Blixa Bargeld Bilbao Song" "Bill's ballroom in Bilbao, Bilbao, Bilbao was the greatest place of the ... whole continent." "For just a dollar you'd get rumpus and... rapture, rumpus and rapture, rumpus and rapture of what ever kind of life... your called your own." "But if you had been around to join the fun, I don't know if you'd have, liked what you'd seen." "The brandy bottles smashing everywhere, on dance floor the grass grew high, through the roof the moon was shining green." "And the music really gave you some return on what you paid!" "Hey Joe, play that old song they always played!" "You old Bilbao moon." "Down where we used to go..." "You old Bilbao moon." "He was used to Brasil." "You old Bilbao Moon." "Down where we used to go, you old Bilbao Moon, he never spared me anything." "I don't know if it would have brought you joy or grief?" "But... it was fantastic, it was fantastic, it was fantastic of the world." "Bill's ballroom in Bilbao, Bilbao," "Bilbao, came a day the end of May in Nineteen eight." "Four guys from Frisco came with sacks..." "of gold dust, sacks of gold dust, sacks of gold dust and the time..." "they showed us all was really great." "But if you had been around to watch the fun, I don't know if you'd have, liked what you'o seen." "The brandy bottles smashing every where, on dance floor the grass grew high, through the roof the moon shining green." "And four guys all going crazy with their pistols blazing high!" "Think you can stop 'em?" "Well, go right ahead and try!" "You old Bilbao moon." "Down where we used to go..." "You old Bilbao moon." "He was used to Brasil." "You old Bilbao moon." "Down where we used to go, you old Bilbao moon!" "He never spared me anything." "I don't know if it would have brought you joy or grief, but... it was fantastic, it was fantastic, it was fantastic of the world." "Bill's ballroom in Bilbao, Bilbao, Bilbao, now they've cleaned it up and it middle class, with potted palms and icecream, very ordinary, very ordinary, very ordinary... just another place to put your ass." "But if you should come around to see the fun, well, I don't know, you might not find it such a strain." "Huh!" "They'ye mopped up all the broken glass, on parquet floors you can't grow grass." "They've shut the green moon out because of rain, and the music makes you cringe now, when you think of what your paid!" "Hey Joe, play that old songs they always played!" "You old Bilbao moon." "Stop!" "How is it going on?" "He was used to Brasil." "You old Bilbao moon." "Down where we used to go, that old Bilbao moon," "Can't remenbers the words." "It's too long again." "I don't know if it would have brought you joy or grief, but... it was fantastic, it was fantastic, it was fantastic of the world." "In 1941 Weill buys a house outside of New York," "Brook House in New City, close to Hudson River." "Lenya is on the dole, and sees to the garden." "Weill wants to do "something big on his former level"." "In 1946 he creates the American opera "Street Scene"." "Its first performance, produced by Charles Friedman, gets good reviews, but it flops financially." "Newsreel, 1943" "The American military government in Germany... invited 4 of Berlin's leading theatre professionals..." "They met Mady Christians and Kurt Weill." ""ls there any chance of you, Mady Christians and you" " Kurt Weill " "I hope that some of the works I created here... over the last 1 4 years will be played in Germany." "If so, I'd like to come, and take part and help." "Joyfully Weill plays exerpts from "Happy End" to his closest friends." "He writes letters to his parents in German, and Lys Symonettes his German co-repetitor." "His relationship with a Swiss Lady is no secret to Lenya." "More than one time she announces to leave him." "Weill is hardly ever at home." "During WW 2, Weill composes "Russian War Relief", asking for support of Russia." "It is played at a country club near Hudson River." "With "Lost in the Stars" Weill is after artistic and financial success." "The play is situated in South Africa and focusses on radical problems." "Weill and Anderson produce it indenpendantly, for the first time." "The white Broadway audience is enthusiastic about it." "It is an artistic success and a financial desaster for Weill." "While "Lost in the Stars" is still running on Broadway." "Weill dies of a heart attack on April 3 rd 1950." "Lenya has some lines from it engraved on his tombstone."