Yet, in his late twenties and early thirties, Blitzstein felt acutely the divide between the creators of esoteric art, especially composers like Schoenberg and Stravinsky, and “the masses” who so desperately needed meaningful – that is, useful – aesthetic experience. The Metropolitan Opera commissioned a full-length opera revisiting the subject of Sacco and Vanzetti, but it was left incomplete at Blitzstein’s death. The doctor came out of the examination saying, “Well, lots of bruises but he is OK.” It seemed a happy ending, and I returned to the consulate to do some other work before the end of the day. His works also include the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes; the Broa… I went back to see him about 6 pm and he was talking to the PAO [Public Affairs Officer] and seemed uncomfortable but okay. [1] He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. Islamabad, Pakistan—Ambassador 1998–2001 He said he was there to finish his opera on Sacco and Vanzetti. The consul brought him in and introduced him to me. . A composer who stood up for leftist causes through his musical compositions, Marc Blitzstein sought to tell the story of the everyday American through musical theater. He was an engine, a rocket, directed in one direction which was his opera [The Cradle Will Rock] – which he almost believed had only to be performed to start the Revolution.”. Songwriter, composer, publisher, author and actor. . Under these new auspices, the production reopened at the Windsor Theatre in January 1938 and played a total of 108 performances. Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905, to affluent parents. Lehrman's long-awaited Marc Blitzstein: A Bio-Bibliography, published in 2005 by Praeger, is the longest published biographical bibliography of any American composer at 645 pages. His other well-known works include his opera Regina, The Airborne Symphony, and his English adaptation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. “. Most exemplary of this style, and Blitzstein’s most well-known work, is his 1937 agitprop musical The Cradle Will Rock, a pro-union political satire, which lampoons corporate greed and champions the every-man, average “Joe Worker”. Without missing a beat, director Orson Welles, producer John Houseman, and Blitzstein rented a piano and the much larger Venice Theatre. When he came into the room the lights got brighter. Effective January 1, 2012, the Foundation will administer Blitzstein's intellectual property, including his compositions, translations, and adaptations, in association with Blitzstein's other nephew, Christopher Davis. He then told me that he had misinformed me. “Marc Blitzstein,” said Orson Welles in 1984, “was almost a saint. In fact he had been beaten up, he wanted to report it to the police. Blitzstein, director Orson Welles, and the rest of the cast marched uptown to another theatre. © 2020 Sony Music Entertainment. With Blitzstein at a battered piano and actors singing from their seats in the audience, the show opened and became a musical theatre legend. At the time of his unexpected and tragic death in 1964, much of his work was left unfinished and unpublished, leaving behind a legacy that has been largely overlooked in the ensuing decades. I got a call from the hospital one day, that there was an American, whose name she didn’t know, who was badly injured in a car accident at the hospital. An instant hit, The Threepenny Opera ran from 1954 to 1961 for a total of 2,707 performances, setting the record as the longest-running musical in history up to that date and winning a special Tony Award in 1956. The Works Progress Administration famously shut down the show just before its opening night on Broadway. Weill encouraged Blitzstein to translate the entire show, but never saw it come to fruition because of his premature death in April 1950. He was untruthful for some reason about why he had come to live in Martinique. Milam went on to a distinguished diplomatic career, serving as U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh and Pakistan. MA in Economics, University of Michigan 1969–1970 Stephen Davis, a retired attorney residing in Rhode Island, has been named an honorary trustee of the Foundation, joining luminaries Teresa Stratas and James Conlon in that role. Well, it turned out he had been beaten so bad he ruptured his liver, and the medics had missed it. Initially Blitzstein told Milam that his injuries were the result of a car accident and asked that this be passed along to his relatives. In accepting the gift at a December 19 reception in honor of Stephen Davis, Foundation president Kim H. Kowalke noted: "No other composer of Blitzstein's independent stature has been so inspired by the example of Kurt Weill or so crucial to the reception of Weill's work. Although its initial run was a scant six weeks, later revivals (1953, 1958) established it as an essential component of the American operatic repertoire. In the film, Blitzstein (played by Hank Azaria) is portrayed as gaining inspiration through ghostly appearances by his idol Brecht and his late anorexic wife. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government or of ADST. Blitzstein's musical gifts were apparent at an early age; he had performed a Mozart piano concerto by the time he was seven. Although openly gay, Blitzstein had kept his homosexuality private from his family and had briefly been married to Eva Goldbeck before she died at the age of 35.
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