[NEohioPAL] Berko preview:

[Roy Berko]

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*The Musical Theater Project presents "Deconstructing Kurt Weill"*

Roy Berko
(Member:  Cleveland Critics Circle, American Theatre Critics Association)

The wording on the gravestone of Kurt Weill comes from the song "A Bird of
Passage" from his musical, "Lost in the Stars."  It reads:  "This is the
life of men on earth:  Out of darkness we come at birth.  Into a lamplit
room, and then--Go forward into dark again."

Weill's life epitomizes that Maxwell Anderson poem.  Born into a secure
Jewish-  German family in 1900, he grew to be one of the country's more
prominent and popular composers.  He, along with his equally well-know
wife, singer Lotte Lenya, were forced into exile by the Nazis in 1933
because, not only were they Jewish, but held and espoused populist views.

He emerged from the dark when he arrived in America, and assumed his place
in American composing nobility by producing many well known works.

He felt so strongly about his expulsion from Deutschland, that he and wife,
Lottie Lenya, decided not to speak German again, except in letters and
conversations with his parents who had escaped to Palestine (now Israel).
They also Americanized the pronunciation of their name, using the "W,"
rather than the Germanic "V" sound at the start of their last name.

His "American" compositions were a departure from his former work.  He
wrote with an immediacy theme.  As he said, "I am writing for the masses.
Music they can sing, and music that deals with their problems.  That is the
only significant form of composition nowadays."

His massive music portfolio included stage and film works, cantatas,
chamber music, piano music, orchestral works, and Lieder
cycles/songs/chansons.  He is probably best known by the general public for
"Mack the Knife," from his "The Threepenny Opera," which became a jazz
standard via the Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin recording.

The Musical Theater Project will present "Deconstructing Kurt Weill: The
American Songs," featuring narration by TMTP Executive Director Heather
Meeker , input from Cleveland composer-arranger, Ty Alan Emerson, as sung
by Fabio Polanco and Christine Fader, with music by guitarist Jake Fader
and the instrumental trio "No Exit."

The concert centers on the theme, "How might Weill's music sound if it were
arranged and performed by contemporary artists?"   Emerson's concept in
arranging the music centered on his belief that "Weill became jaded by the
Old World and wonderfully excited about becoming an American artist.  Where
ever you turn in the songs, that colors his musical and dramatic choices."

"This composer embraced whatever sound he heard swirling around him--and in
New York in the 1930s and 40s, those sounds included jazz, swing, the blues
and pure Broadway ballads."

Emerson also notes, in regard to Weill's work, "I found that whether you're
a musical theater fan, opera or jazz musician, glam-rocker or indie-punk
all-star, you can make Weill your own."

Audiences will get their chance to experience Emerson's interpretations of
Weill on May 2 and 3 at 7 PM in the James Levine Theatre of Cleveland
Public Theatre.  For tickets call 216-631-2727 or visit cptonline.org.

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