And, in addition to all this, "Surabaya Johnny" first appeared in "Happy
End," a Brecht-Weill collaboration which flopped when it premiered in
1929. I haven't heard the opera "Mahagonny" in a while, so I don't know
whether they cribbed the song for the larger work or not.
Master of obscure Brecht/Weill trivia,
George
George Hunka wrote:
> In hopes of shedding light:
>
> According to Martin Esslin's critical biography, Die Dreigroschenoper
> premiered on August 31, 1928, at the Theatre am Schiffbauerdamm in
> Berlin. And yes, there the Pirate Jenny song does appear there, but
> originally this was assigned to Polly Peachum (played by Carola Neher
> in Berlin) for the wedding scene in the first act. It was given to
> Lenya at some point because she and Weill felt that she didn't have
> enough to do during her own scenes.
>
> Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny premiered in Leipzig in March,
> 1930. It was based on a "songspiel" called Mahagonny, better known as
> "The Little Mahagonny" (to differentiate it from an opera), which was
> first produced at the music festival in Baden-Baden in 1927. There's a
> good recording of this conducted by David Atherton on DG. The text of
> this "Little Mahagonny" wasn't originally written as a songspiel;
> essentially, they're poems by Brecht set by Weill, several of which
> are indeed written in that bizarre pidgin English of Brecht's.
>
> In the hope that this helps, in doubt that it will,
> George
>
> Robin Hamilton wrote:
>>> The story about Lenya meeting Stratas is true. The latter was
>>> making a specialty of Jenny in Mahagonny, Lenya created the role in
>>> 1920something.
>>
>> I'm getting a little confused here, Ken -- I thought (Pirate) Jenny
>> was what Lotte Lenya sang in +Threepenny Opera+. "Surabaya Johnny"
>> is (indeed) from Mahagony -- isn't it the only song there which was
>> originally written in English?
>>
>> The top of my head says 3dO was thirties, and Mahagony was later,
>> written when Brecht/Weill had skipped to the States. I think I have
>> a CD of the original performance of 3dO, and another from the fifties
>> when LL's voice was virtually gone, and Mahagony on tape -- isn't the
>> twenties a little early?
>>
>> But (almost certainly) I've managed to screw this up in my head --
>> can you uncrumple this much-crumpled thing?
>>
>> Robin
>>
>>> As I heard it she presented herself to the younger soprano
>>> backstage, after a performance, and all but ordained her as a
>>> priestess of the cult of Brecht & Weill. She gave Stratas access to
>>> all the unpublished material her husband left in a bank vault.
>>> Stratas recorded a CD called The Unknown Kurt Weill which included
>>> some wonderful music as well as junk like "Schickelgruber." When
>>> Lenya was in the last throes of lung cancer, a true agony, Stratas
>>> cancelled chunks of her performing scheduled to nurse her, slept by
>>> her bed, was with her when she died. Separate love from madness, I
>>> dare you....
>>>
>>> Ken
>>
>>
>
--
George Hunka
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