Lena the Legend. A Pictorial Autobiography

Farneth, David {edited by}

ISBN 10: 050001888X / ISBN 13: 9780500018880

Published by Thames and Hudson, London, 1998

About this Item

254pp.illustrated in colour and b/w.Illustrated dust jacket, unclipped.

Seller Inventory # 011870

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Lena the Legend. A Pictorial Autobiography
• Publisher: Thames and Hudson, London
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 050001888X
• ISBN 13: 9780500018880
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Published to celebrate the centenary of her birthday, "Lenya, The Legend" celebrates the singer and actress whose legend is tied to the music of Kurt Weill and the theatre of Bertolt Brecht. From her performances on stage and screen in such hits as "The Threepenny Opera", "Cabaret" and "From Russia with Love", Lotte Lenya established herself as on of the most exciting and talented performers of the era. Born Karoline Blamauer in 1898, Lenya escaped a destitute childhood in Vienna to begin her career as an actress and a dancer in Zurich. In 1920s Berlin she met and married the young composer Kurt Weill, and the two of them brought their talents to America theatre when they left Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Here are more than 300 photos, most never before published, accompanied by Lenya's own words, taken from interviews, private conversations, letters and other writings. The first visual biography of this extraordinary performer, "Lenya, The Legend" is an intimate and revealing tribute for Lenya fans and theatre and opera buffs.

Review

Actress and singer Lotte Lenya personified the decadence of 20s and 30s Berlin, with unforgettable roles created in collaboration with her composer husband Kurt Weill and the playwright Bertolt Brecht. Her performance as the prostitute Jenny in The Threepenny Opera (1928) became the stuff of legend.

Born Karoline Blamauer in Vienna in 1898, Lenya spent an impoverished childhood there before launching her career in Zurich and then Berlin, where she met and married Weill. The cream of the Berlin arts scene, Weill and Lenya left Germany in 1933 following the election of Hitler as Chancellor. Weill was Jewish and an advocate of freedom of expression--his play Der Silbersee (The Silver Lake), which contained a character caricaturing Hitler, had already been banned by the authorities. The couple went to Paris, and then, when the threat of war in Europe became imminent, to the United States, where both enjoyed highly successful careers on Broadway. Weill died suddenly in 1950, but Lenya carried on, tirelessly reinterpreting his and others' work; appearing on stage and screen (most memorably as Rosa Krebb in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love), until well into later life. She died at the age of 83 in 1981.

Lenya the Legend: A Pictorial Autobiography is a fascinating book packed full of Lenya's own forthright reminiscences, interviews and letters, lavishly illustrated with photographs of the star from vampish Berlin cabaret days, through the glamour of her Broadway career and later years. Published to coincide with the centenary of her birth, it is a fitting tribute to a formidable legend. --Catherine Taylor