Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Love Life – A Vaudeville in Two Parts (1948)
Book & Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986)
Quirijn de Lang – Sam Cooper; Stephanie Corley – Susan Cooper; Themba Mvula – Magician / Interlocutor.
Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra of Opera North / James Holmes
rec. live January 2025, Grand Theatre, Leeds
English text included
Capriccio C5550 [2 CDs 149]
I’ve long been fascinated by what in today’s parlance would probably be described as Kurt Weill’s ‘journey’ as a composer. Very broadly, there were the very serious concert works, such as the two symphonies; then there were his biting collaborations with Berthold Brecht, in which he fused elements of the musical vocabulary of his concert works with Weimar Republic cabaret-style music; finally, after he was obliged to flee Nazi Germany, he successfully reinvented himself as a Broadway composer, although in so doing he never completely lost sight of his musical roots.
This recording is the first to be made of arguably his least well-known American show and it’s fitting that it should be taken from a “staged concert” production by the ever-enterprising Opera North. That company has a long and honourable history of staging music theatre works as part of their annual season. I vividly remember their 1990 co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company of Show Boat, which I saw in Stratford on Avon. That marvellous evening in the theatre made me appreciate the greatness of Show Boat and gave me a new appreciation of the Great American Musicals. I hadn’t realised, though, until I read Capriccio’s booklet, the extent to which Opera North has championed Weill’s musical shows. In one of the booklet essays, Kim H. Kowalke, the President of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, tells us that since 1996, the company has staged Threepenny Opera, The Seven Deadly Sins, One Touch of Venus, Arms and the Cow (Der Kuhlhandel) and Street Scene. The conductor of all those Weill shows was James Holmes, Opera North’s Head of Music from 1996 to 2008. In fact, the present performance of Love Life was the second time the company had put on the piece; they gave the European premiere in 1996. It had been hoped that a second staging would follow in 2025 but a series of constraints, outlined by Mr Kowalke, ruled this out; three staged concert performances were given instead in January 2025, one of which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. I think I’m correct in saying that this release uses the BBC recording.
The background to Love Life is complex. Fortunately, the booklet is graced by an exemplary extended essay by Prof Joel Galand in which he relates the story of how the show came into being and also explains the intentions of Alan Jay Lerner and Kurt Weill in creating it. I shall draw heavily on his essay in this paragraph. The concept for the show was far from straightforward in 1948. Fortunately, we have Joel Galand to guide us but I wondered, as I listened to the recording, whether the show’s decidedly mixed reception may have arisen because both the critics and the audiences didn’t really ‘get’ the idea behind the show. The essence of the show was recently described by Nicholas Kenyon in the Daily Telegraph as a “clever scenario of exploring the institution of marriage over 150 years [from 1791 to the present day (1948)]”. This scenario follows a couple, Sam and Susan Cooper – and their two young children, Johnny and Elizabeth – through that period; a number of episodes are related in Part I – in 1791, 1821, 1857, 1894 and the 1920s – while in Part II the events all take place in 1948. But the genius of the show – which may also have been its Achilles heel in 1948 – is the ingenious combination of these vignettes (Sketches, as they are termed in the libretto) with what was, in effect, a tribute to the American tradition of Vaudeville (or variety shows). In Kenyon’s words, the show “created a mixed genre of opera/musical/cabaret”. In the structure created by Lerner and Weill, each vignette in the lives of Sam and Susan – who never age, despite the passage of over 150 years – is preceded by a short Vaudeville act; these offer an introduction to what is to pass in the next sketch. As an example, in the first sketch (1791) Sam and Susan arrive in a small town to establish a small store in which Sam will sell homemade furniture. By the time of the next sketch (1821) factories have become established, putting the shop out of business and leaving Sam with no choice but to go to work in a factory. Between these two sketches, we hear a male voice octet singing a witty, clever song entitled ‘Progress’, which bridges the two sketches and sets the scene for the 1821 sketch in an ideal fashion.
I won’t outline the rest of the plot here, but what I will say is that I felt drawn into the story of Sam and Susan as the show unfolded. You can almost sense what is going to happen; over time the march of progress and the pressures of life drive a wedge between them and eventually, in Part II, they divorce. At first, Sam celebrates his “freedom” but it’s readily apparent that even as he does so, his enthusiasm for bachelorhood is tempered with regret. At the very end of the show, he and Susan literally edge towards a reconciliation; I say literally because they do so while approaching each other from the two ends of a tightrope – which is clearly a metaphor for the ‘tightrope of life’.
If you acquire this set – as I hope you will – and look through the libretto you may not be surprised that the show closed on Broadway in May 1949 after 252 performances; this is no reflection on the quality of the show itself but, I’m sure, owed much to the fact that it was misunderstood. The show was forgotten; I don’t know when it was revived but Joel Galand tells us that neither Weill nor Lerner saw it again in their lifetimes; Lerner died in 1986. Certainly, the concept of this show can’t have been what the Broadway audiences of 1948 expected but Galand includes a pertinent remark by the show’s designer, Boris Aronson, who went on to design sets for Cabaret and for several Sondheim shows. Aronson expressed the view that “There were enough ideas in Love Life for twenty musicals…In many ways, this show was the forerunner of today’s so-called ‘concept’ musical”. In his essay, Galand makes much of the bravery of Lerner and Weill in putting together such a show in 1948; I’m sure he’s right to do so.
The show is very entertaining – especially in such a strong, energetic performance as this. Nicholas Kenyon, who I’ve previously cited, describes Weill’s music as “fizzy”; I agree. He scored the show himself and the orchestration is consistently ear-tickling, not least in the use he makes of the reed section (seven players are required) and the trumpets. There are some jolly good tunes, too. In that regard, a standout number is, I think, ‘Here I’ll stay’, which Sam sings early in Part I; references to it keep cropping up during the show. The duet ‘I remember it well’ between Sam and Susan prefigures the idea of the similarly-titled Lerner & Loewe song in the 1958 musical Gigi, although the tune is not the same. Two set-piece big numbers in Part II for the lead characters – ‘Is it him, or is it me? (Susan), and ‘This is the life’ (Sam) – are memorable, though for me Susan’s ‘Yes, I know. He will be a perfect dream of manhood’ steals the show, especially in the terrific performance by Stephanie Corley which, rightly, brings the house down.
The Vaudeville numbers are never less than entertaining, both in terms of the music and the lyrics. There is one which, for me, rather outstays its welcome. This is ‘Ho, Billy O!’ which is sung by a group of madrigal singers at the start of Part II. To be sure, it’s a funny and clever skit on unaccompanied madrigal singing – and it’s performed with verve – but at 6:36 it’s way too long. On the other hand, ‘Economics’, sung by the Quartette in Part I is very witty and the four singers deliver it with great pizzazz. I think the song ‘Mother’s getting nervous’, sung by the piping voices of the Three Tots (also Part I) probably worked better on stage than it does in an audio recording, though that’s not to criticise the three confident and characterful young singers. A highlight of the Vaudeville items is ‘Love Song’, sung by the Hobo near the end of Part I. This is a good song, which Justin Hopkins delivers expressively. The longest of the Vaudeville items is ‘The Illusion Minstrel Show’ near the end; in all, this segment plays for over 21 minutes – though one’s not conscious of the amount of time. It’s an ingenious construct, which enables Lerner and Weill to draw their story to an end, making the divorced Sam and Susan realise that they need each other and bringing the show to what we hope will be a happy ending.
Love Life may not be Kurt Weill’s greatest Broadway show – I don’t think it has the depth of Street Scene, for example. Having said that, I simply don’t believe its relative neglect is justified. I hadn’t heard it before but I was greatly entertained by it and, at times, touched as well. My enjoyment was immeasurably enhanced by hearing it in such a terrific performance. There simply isn’t a weak link in the cast and the two principals, Quirijn de Lang and Stephanie Corley, are outstanding. People who dislike applause when listening to recordings should be aware that many of the numbers are applauded but I think that goes with the territory of a live musical. What struck me quite forcibly was that the applause becomes increasingly enthusiastic as the show unfolds; that suggests to me that the members of the Leeds audience were drawn in, as I was. Perhaps inevitably, I’ve focussed on the singing characters but I mustn’t omit to mention the 36-strong Orchestra of Opera North. They’re superb. Often the music requires them to be sassy and invariably they deliver the goods; but there are sensitive passages too, notably underneath some of the dialogue, and in these the playing is just as adept. Conductor James Holmes clearly has a strong pedigree in such music; it shows. Ensemble is consistently tight and he paces the score brilliantly. He and all the musicians serve Weill and Lerner exceptionally well.
I should add that two extra numbers are included as an appendix on the second CD. Both of these are numbers which were cut from the show before it opened on Broadway. As such, they were not included in the Opera North performances but they were recorded onstage at the Grand Theatre at the time the performances took place. One is a fairly short song for Susan which was intended to be sung by that character as part of the Cruise Ship episode (1920s) at the end of Part I. This was cut for understandable dramatic reasons. It’s a nice number, which Stephanie Corley sings very nicely indeed; I’m glad that it was included. The other item – a much longer piece, here running for nearly 10 minutes – is a different matter. Entitled ‘The Locker Room’ it was originally intended to be performed immediately before the (orchestral)’Divorce Ballet’ in Part II. It’s an exhibition of laddish male chauvinism in which nether Lerner’s lyrics nor Weill’s music show any subtlety. It was absolutely the right decision to cut it and though it’s appropriate to include it here for the sake of completeness I doubt may listeners will want to hear it again.
The engineers have also made a significant contribution to the success of this enterprise. The sound is well balanced, immediate and bright – though never in-your-face. The engineering is ideally judged for this music.
Capriccio have documented this set superbly. Both of the extensive booklet essays are genuinely valuable in helping us to appreciate Love Life. The sung and spoken text is provided – and set in an easy-to-read font. Where dialogue was omitted during the performance, helpful editorial notes tell us what has been left out. If all this were not enough, the booklet is copiously illustrated with colour photos from the Opera North production. This booklet is a model of its kind.
Anyone with an interest in either the music of Kurt Weill or in Broadway musicals generally should hear this set. I’ve enjoyed it immensely. Opera North and Capriccio deserve our thanks for this marvellous premiere recording of an unfairly neglected show.
John Quinn
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Other cast members
Louis Stow – Johnny Cooper
Tilly Baker – Elizabeth Cooper
Will Hopkins, Joshua da Costa, Andrew Randall, Masimba Ushe – Quartette
Felicity Moore, Amber Midgley, Lottie Gray – Three Tots
Justin Hopkins – Hobo
Holly Saw, Max Westwell – Dancers
Charlie Drummond – Miss Horoscope
Helen Évora – Miss Mysticism
Tom Smith – Mr Cynic
Claire Lees – Miss Ideal Man
John Savournin – Sven
