Angelina Reaux does Kurt Weill proud

By Cantor Sheldon F. Merel

SOLANA BEACH, California — On Monday evening, June 6^th,  the North Coast Rep  featured the brilliant artist,   Angelina Reaux.   She sang several of Kurt Weill ‘s Broadway hit show tunes, and charmed the audience throughout the evening .  Reaux’s voice is perfectly placed; she sings magnificently.  Weill’s piano accompaniments are almost classical in form, and splendidly played by William Ah Sing.    It was a one-night appearance at the Rep, and if and when  she returns  to San Diego, I would walk a mile to hear her again.

Reaux  introduced  several of Weill’s songs, written in collaboration with famous  lyricists: Alan Lerner (Love Life ), Maxwell Anderson (Knickerbocker Holiday), Langston Hughes,(Street Scene), Ogden Nash (One Touch of Venus), and Ira Gershwin (Lady in the Dark) . Perhaps most memorable of Weill’s many hits  beautifully sung by Reaux was: Speak  Low , September Song  , and The Saga of Jenny (who couldn’t make her mind up)

Angelina Réaux has enjoyed an international career in opera, theatre, concert, cabaret, and premiered works by Bernstein, Tony Kushner, Ned Rorem, Ricky Ian Gordon and Kurt Weill.  The New York Times wrote, “ She brings a better voice to Weill than anyone has ever heard , and a degree of identification with the material  that no one  has matched  since Lotta Lenya  herself (Weill’s wife )”

Kurt Weill  was born 1900 in Dessau, Germany, the son of a cantor. He began composing music at the age of eleven, and at  21 served as synagogue organist and choir director.   In 1928, he wrote the Three Penny Opera, as a portrait of a period in German history. It was revived in New York  in 1955,  and ran for more than five years on Broadway.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, Weill and his wife, the actress-singer, Lotte Lenya, left Germany, moved to Paris and then to New York, where he embraced  American jazz, tangos and music-hall ballads.   He then developed a distinctive musical voice, and  wrote several well known Broadway musicals.   In 1935, he wrote the score for a massive pageant about Jewish peoplehood, The Eternal Road, which was performed in New York City.

In early 1940’s, New York’s Park Avenue Synagogue  commissioned him to write a composition for the Kiddush  prayer in Hebrew (Friday evening blessing of Wine ).It was written for cantor, piano, and choir, and  is a charming reflection of his Broadway compositions. It is a wonderful “show piece” for any special concert of Jewish music, and a  joy to sing.  I recorded it live-in-concert years ago, and is on my C.D.  Chants  of a Lifetime from Synagogue to Opera.  You can hear it by clicking here:  http://sandiegojewishworld.com/sheldon_merel_songs/kiddush%20(weill).mp3

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Merel is cantor emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego.