Marc Blitzstein

about

Marc Blitzstein (March 2, 1905 – January 22, 1964) was an American composer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Jewish parents, among his works were The Cradle Will Rock, whose premiere was directed by Orson Welles, the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, the Broadway musical Juno based on Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, No For An Answer, and his off-Broadway translation/adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. He also completed translation/adaptations of Brecht's and Weill's Mahagonny and Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, with music by Paul Dessau. Blitzstein also composed music for films such as Surf and Seaweed (1931) by Ralph Steiner and the documentary The Spanish Earth (1937). The dramatic premiere of the pro-union The Cradle Will Rock was at the Venice Theater on June 16, 1937. The cast had been locked out of the Maxine Elliott Theatre by the WPA, the government agency which had originally funded the production, and so a performance without sets or costumes took place, with actors and musicians performing from the audience (to evade union restrictions on their performance) and Blitzstein narrating at the piano. In 1939, Blitzstein's close friend Leonard Bernstein led a revival of the play at Harvard, narrating from the piano just as Blitzstein had done. The 1999 Tim Robbins film Cradle Will Rock was built around this somewhat-fictionalized historical event. Additional major compositions include th

top songs

albums

Blitzstein: Music for Solo Piano, 1918-1963

The Cradle Will Rock [Original 1985 Cast (The Acting Company)]

The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera (1954 Original Broadway Cast)

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Weill: The Threepenny Opera (Original 1954 Cast, Arr. M. Blitzstein)

The Cradle Will Rock (Live)

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Blitzstein: Zipperfly And Other Songs

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USAD 2010 - 11 The Great Depression

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Blitzstein: The Airborne Symphony

Blitzstein: The Cradle Will Rock - No for an Answer - Symphony, "The Airborne" (1938-1947)

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First Life: The Rare Early Works

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I Wish It So

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