I just finished this book and was mightily impressed. My esteemed predecessor in these reviews has summarized the book very well, leaving me the opportunity to comment on a single important aspect of the book. When you mention Weill's name, people think of only one thing (if they know him at all). The Three Penny Opera. This book emphatically puts his '20 something work with Brecht in perspective, showing that he continued to grow and develop throughout his career. The narrative is keen and passionate. The details of the creative periods and production periods of various works are gripping. My net response is: there is a lot more to this man's creative output than just The Three Penny Opera and Mahagony (son of 3-penny?). He deserves to be heard; will he?

Biographies (especially those of people from the entertainment industry) have become a fad since the early 80's, and most of them, however entertaining, don't add much to our knowledge of their subject and time. One admirable exception is this account about Kurt Weill and his lifetime by Ronald Sanders. Since the very beginning, Mr. Sanders manages to give us a vivid portrait of how was Germany since the years before Weill was born, how was life like in those days for Jewish people there, and the great composer's musical roots: his father was a Cantor, and many of his ancestors were professional or amateur musicians. To say only that Mr. Sanders' account is full of painstainkingly researched details would be unjust, for he goes far beyond that. He uses all these details to make us understand and feel in depth the makings of a remarkable career that unfortunately didn't last so long (Weill died prematurely, at 50). Mr. Sanders not only treats us to an unforgettable tour of 20th Century's troubled first half but also gives us a thorough knowledge of how music evolved from the days of Ferrucio Busoni and Gustav Mahler to Kurt Weill's works in the U.S., with lots of information about other great artists like Arnold Schoenberg, Bertolt Brecht, Lotte Lenya, how Weill created such masterpieces as "Dreigroschenoper", "Knickerbocker Holiday", "Lady in the Dark", and so on. You can say that this is a cliché, but, if you are, like me, interested in anything related to the best music that was produced in the 20th Century, don't miss "The Days Grow Short". And if you are already a fan of Kurt Weill's, this book will make you even more appreciative of him and his music. I recommend that you read this biography with your CD player on. You'll enjoy it even more when Mr. Sanders speaks of Weill's perennial creations, like "Mack the Knife", "September Song", "Speak Low", "Lost in the Stars", "My Ship"...

Very often, scholarship on Kurt Weill tends to favor his German works such as "The Threepenny Opera" or "Mahagonny," however Sanders account spans the entire length of Weill's career. From his beginnings in Berlin with Busoni, to his German hits with Brecht, to his flight to America and "Johnny Johnson," to his Broadway successes with "Knickerbocker Holiday," "Lady in the Dark," and "One Touch of Venus." Sanders presents each era of Weill's life with the same objectivity. He calls for an approach to Weill that encompasses Weill's entire career.

If you are thinking of doing any research on Kurt Weill, THIS is the place to start.

Overshadowed by the two masterpieces that sandwiched it ('The Threepenny Opera' and 'The Rise and Fall of Mahogony'), Brecht-Weill's 'Happy End' is generally dismissed by Brecht scholars as 'inadequate' (following the repudiation by the playwright himself), rushed as a profit-seeking sequel to the spectacularly popular 'Threepenny' Its premiere was a bourgeois-baiting farrago, and the show humiliatingly closed after two days. its importance today lies as a source for some of the greatest songs written in the 20th century, including 'The Bilbao Song', Surabaya Johnny' and 'The song of Mandalay'.

'Happy End' was cobbled together from a variety of sources (Shaw, Sheldon, crime serials etc.), but officially credited, for copyright reasons, to an non-existent short story by the non-existent Dorothy Lane. It finds Brecht in blithely playful mode, with a suprememly silly story, set in a mythical Chicago of 1919, about a gangster falling for a Salvation Army preacher, framed against an even more improbable backdrop of failed robberies carried out by Runyonesque goons (although they predate the American by nearly a decade), led by a sinister Japanese doctor, The Governor (in a part written for Peter Lorre), and a mysterious lady of disguises, The Fly.

the play is a festive mixture of menace, satire and farce, with the gangster plot spilling into the Sally Army one, and vice versa, each making the other ridiculous. The play makes brilliantly inventive use of slides, film, snickeringly ironic intertitles and a multi-level stage defining the two realms - the play's funniest scene has The Governor breaking into an SA meeting to murder an errant hood, before leading the faithful in song, conducting with his Browning. An absurd conclusion full of daft coincidences, and a two-fingers at capitalists, and you have wonderful entertainment Brechtians shouldn't be so sniffy about (especially if you have Weill's glorious score beside you - jaunty, melancholy, parodic, exotic, disturbing: surely his best?).

This translation by Michael Feingold is a 'loose' adaptation which played on Broadway (with Meryl Streep and Christopher Lloyd) and the West End (Bob Hoskins) in the 1970s. Whatever of Brecht is missing, his cherishably flat, cynically comic tone is beautifully captured.

Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya's relationship was hair-raising by modern American standards. He was a workaholic whose music came first in his life (as he himself told Lenya), while she was a sex addict who openly sought the excitement and attention she couldn't get from Weill with other men. Yet rather than growing apart, they continually turned to one another for advice, reassurance, support, and a sense of continuity. Some reasons for why this apparently extraordinarily dysfunctional marriage survived infidelity, separation, and even a short-lived divorce can be found in these letters, in which the Weills exchange phony and real endearments, sexy come-ons, giggly in-jokes and arch witticisms as well as carrying on the day-to-day business of a working life together and apart. Read in sequence, their correspondence makes a funny, engrossing, and ultimately heartbreaking romance.

This is Volume 5 from the Musical Theatre Anthology collection of Broadway duets. It only contains 21 songs, which isn't a lot for a book of this kind. (This is one of the reasons I gave it 3 stars.) Some of the songs are somewhat overdone, but good songs nontheless. Songs are: Bess, You Is My Woman (Porgy and Bess) I Have Dreamed (The King and I) I Loves You Porgy (Porgy and Bess) It Never Was You (Knickerbocker Holiday) Make Believe (Show Boat) A Man and a Woman (110 in the Shade) My Heart Is So Full of You (The Most Happy Fella) People Will Say We're in Love (Oklahoma!) Salzburg (Bells Are Ringing) Strange Music (Kismet) The Touch of Your Hand (The Cat and the Fiddle) Too Many Mornings (Follies) We Kiss in a Shadow (The King and I) We'll Go Away Together (Street Scene) What You Want Wid Bess (Porgy and Bess) When the Children Are Asleep (Carousel) Will You Remember Me (Knickerbocker Holiday) With So Little to Be Sure Of (Anyone Can Whistle) Wunderbar (Kiss Me, Kate) You Are Love (Show Boat) and You're Nearer (Babes in Arms). All of the songs are male/ female.

This book presents a great collection of songs for the soprano singer, ranging in the well-known to the semi-obscure, which is helpful for audition pieces. The only flaw is the lack of up-tempo numbers, as many of the songs are ballads and otherwise slow, which is a drawback for those trying to build up their range of styles.

This book is very well organized, complete with a table of contents organized by musical, and summaries of each show for reference. The songs are presented in their original scores (no funky keys:). Althought this should be a part of every experienced singer;s library, those singers who have not had a couple years of either private training or music theory should skip it. Among certain circles, this is considered "The Bible" for young singers

One has to know and understand the original German text of the Dreigroschenoper to be really able to judge the quality of the English translations. This one, used among others by Helen Schneider on her album with Weill songs, has nothing of the sarcasms of the German lyrics. Better read the 1954 translation of Marc Blitzstein or the translation made by Frank McGuinness in the early 1990s.

Of all the translations on the market, this one is the best -- most are watered-down, tepid versions. Manheim & Willet's was used in the late 1970's revival of the piece by the New York Shakespeare Festival, which starred the late Raul Julia and Ellen Greene (of "Little Shop of Horrors" fame, in the role originally intended for Lotte Lenya).