Kurt Weill 1900-1950

Kurt Weill was born in Dessau in 1900. In Berlin, he studied with Engelbert Humperdinck and Ferrucio Busoni and also met the writer and dramatist Bertolt Brecht. The collaboration between Weill and Brecht came to fruition in the form of the greatest ever stage success: Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), premiered in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, a work that features Brecht's contemporary reworking of John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1728) and Weill's unique, era-defining music. In 1928, Weill married the actress Lotte Lenya. The couple left Germany in 1933 and moved to Paris, then London, before settling in the USA. There, Weill worked with many outstanding writers and directors of the day and made an enormous contribution to American musical life. He died in New York in 1950.

Roots to Kurt Weill:
Dessau