American Highways
fri 28 oct 2016 18:00 hrs
AMERICAN HIGHWAYS PRESENTS MARC BLITZSTEIN, ACT 3: “Mack the Knife on Broadway”
Composer Marc Blitzstein was a man who straddled many genres, from classical to Broadway. He could make text and music marry each other in simple and glorious ways. We’ll hear Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, and Lotte Lenya in this episode, about Blitzstein’s brilliant adaptation of Threepenny Opera.
Blitzstein’s own songwriting was remarkably focussed and spare – pared down to the most basic elements – yet with fiery results. One of the highlights of this episode is Marc’s friend Paul Robeson, singing “Purest Kind of a Guy.” This is Episode 3 of our four-part series on Blitzstein.
Joshua Schmidt wrote, “How many of us nowadays are willing to put work out into the world in the teeth of forces that will quash and censor it? Who in modern American music and theatrical history offers a greater example of such bravery than Blitzstein?”
More at GuyLivingston.com/blitzstein