Two by Weill -so Stay a While: Kurt Weill and his wife Lotte Lenya fled Germany in the late 1930's. He had great succes with the Three Penny Opera in Germany as well as other politically oriented works with playwright Berthold Brecht. Once in America, he began to work with a number of Broadawy lyricists like Allan Jay Lerner, Maxwell Anderson, Ogden Nash and Ira Gershwin. Despite his non -native background, his theatrical output featured historical American characters like Peter Stuyvesant in ' Knickerbocker Holiday " ( including the well known Septemeber Song, lyrics by Maxwell Anderson) and a Moss Hart original libretto for " Lady In The Dark" . This was based on Hart's own experience with American style psychoanalytic practices. Lyrics were by Ira Gershwin.
From Weill's " Knickerbocker Holiday" there is a lovely but lesser known ballad called " It Never Was You".
From " Lady in the Dark" the song " My Ship" reflects the longing of the Lady,still in the dark wanting to know if , metaphorically her ship will ever come in and " Bring my own true love to me."
Both songs are sung by Julie Andrews whose vocal and acting talents are sometimes overlooked given her " Mary Poppins" Sound of Music" Goody Goody type roles.
She has the good fortune to be accompanied by Andre Previn on solo piano. Both he and Kurt Weill came from Berlin and he obviously has an affinity for Weill's music. Listen to how he elegantly supports and augments both the music itself and Julie Andrews convincing performances.
LINK: http://youtu.be/XmAEMyLIdxc
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