 The scandalous finale of the Mahagonny Songspiel, Brecht and Weill’s first collaboration, at the 1927 German Chamber Music Festival. Weill observes from the far left, while Lenya holds up a sign saying “for Weill” on the far right of the boxing ring. Next to her is Brecht, in a white suit at the rear, watching with one foot in the ring. Lenya’s sign was a direct answer to Brecht’s comment about future work together: “Weill has to get used to the fact that his name will notappear on the program. |  Kurt Weill in Le Lavandou, where he and Brecht completed The Threepenny Opera in 1928. As Lenya wrote: “The two men wrote and rewrote furiously, night and day, with only hurried swims in between.” |  A scene from the 1928 production of The Threepenny Opera. The signs in the background announce Peachums’s song, “The Insufficiency of the Human Endeavor.” The background titles and special lighting insured that the songs interrupted rather than continued the story being told. |
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 Helene Weigel’s Danish passport photo, 1939. Thanks to Weigel’s connections, Brecht and her children were able to able to live, work, and go to school in Denmark for six years. They fled in 1939, when the Nazis occupied the country. |  Francesco von Mendelssohn, Eleanora von Mendelssohn, Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, and Meyer Weisgal on board the Majestic as they arrive in New York City in 1935. Weill’s friends were astonished when he and Lenya reunited in Paris and decided to begin a new life together in America. They remarried in New York in 1937. |  Weill enjoyed creative and financial success on Broadway and adored America. |
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