Street Scene: an American Opera (Based on Elmer Rice's Play)

[PERFORMANCE] [MUSICAL THEATRE] WEILL, Kurt (music); Elmer Rice (book); Langston Hughes (lyrics)

Published by Chappell & Co., Inc (1948), New York, 1948

About this Item

First printing. Inscribed on title page: "For Joe Littau, a merry Christmas and thanks for a beautiful job!," signed "Kurt [Weill]," undated but annotated in pencil, presumably by Littau: "Xmas, 1948." Quarto (30cm). Original buff wrappers, printed in red on front cover; 274pp. Professional paper repairs at spine ends; expected tanning to exterior and text; still a superlative copy overall and quite uncommon. Housed in a custom-made cloth clamshell box. A terrific association copy of this acclaimed late work by Weill, for which he won the inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score in 1947. Street Scene is perhaps the apotheosis of Weill's socially-engaged musical theater, a blend of operatic and theatrical elements with which he first experimented in his collaborations with Bertolt Brecht of the Thirties, including Three Penny Opera and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Street Scene, based on Elmer Rice's naturalistic working-class drama of the same name, was especially noteworthy for including lyrics by the African-American poet Langston Hughes, whom Weill sought out specifically to "lift the everyday language of the people into a simple, unsophisticated poetry" (quoted by Jane Vial Jaffe in her program notes to a 2008 production). This was Hughes' first experience writing for musical theater. Street Scene premiered at the Adelphi Theater in New York in January, 1947 and met with critical success, though its high production costs forced the production to close in April. The show has never been revived on Broadway, but it has been staged regularly by operatic companies, including revivals by the New York City Opera in 1959, 1979, and 1990. Inscriptions by Weill are uncommon; it's an honor he appears to have bestowed only on very close friends and collaborators. In this case, the presentation is to Joe Littau, the well-known pit conductor who was at this time the Musical Director for Weill's 1948 musical "Love Life," which ran on Broadway from October, 1948 to May, 1949.

Seller Inventory # 80631

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Street Scene: an American Opera (Based on Elmer Rice's Play)
• Publisher: Chappell & Co., Inc (1948), New York
• Publication Date: 1948
• Edition: First Edition.
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Autographs & Manuscripts
  • Drama & Film
  • Music & Performing Arts
  • Radical & Proletarian Literature