Street Scene. An American Opera (Based On Elmer Rice's Play)
New York: Chappell & Co., Inc., 1948. 1st Edition. Large quarto, publisher's printed paper wraps.
First edition score to German-Jewish composer Kurt Weill’s American opera, based on Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, with lyrics by leading Harlem Renaissance figure Langston Hughes. A musical drama in two acts, the opera is set on a sweltering summer day outside a tenement building in 1940s New York. An admirer of Rice's play after seeing a performance in 1930 in Berlin, Weill reached out to the playwright upon his arrival in New York after fleeing the Nazis. Rice initially turned down the project, but after Weill’s numerous successes (Knickerbocker Holiday, Lady In the Dark, One Touch of Venus), he agreed to collaborate. The pair brought in Hughes to write lyrics, believing he would "lift the everyday language of the people into a simple, unsophisticated poetry." Hughes brought Weill to Harlem to see real life street scenes and expose him firsthand to the birthplace of jazz and blues. Premiering in Philadelphia in 1946, the opera received the inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score and a Broadway premiere in 1947. Somme chipping and wear to spine-ends and spine, minor soiling and edgewear to wraps. Very good. Item #10105
$200.00