Weill, << vyl or wyl, >> Kurt (1900-1950), was a German composer famous for his music for the theater. Weill is noted for music he wrote for the plays of the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. The best-known work by Brecht and Weill is The Threepenny Opera (1928), which includes the popular song “Mack the Knife.” They also wrote Happy End (1929), The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930), and The Seven Deadly Sins (1933).
Weill was born on March 2, 1900, in Dessau and studied with the noted composers Engelbert Humperdinck and Ferruccio Busoni. He composed instrumental music and several works for the stage before starting his collaboration with Brecht. Weill left Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. He settled in the United States in 1935.
Weill’s first two works in America were the experimental musical plays Johnny Johnson (1936) and The Eternal Road (1937). His first traditional musical comedy, Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), features the ballad “September Song.” Weill’s other musicals include Lady in the Dark (1941), One Touch of Venus (1943), Street Scene (1947), Down in the Valley (1948), and Lost in the Stars (1949). He was married to the German singer and actress Lotte Lenya from 1926 to 1933, and again from 1937 until his death on April 3, 1950.
