People
Photos
Purpose
Advertisement
Advertisement
  2. People
  3. Surname Directory
  4. B
  5. Blednyh - Blueback
  6. Blitvich - Blkanton
  7. Blitzstein
  8. Marc Blitzstein
A photo of Marc Blitzstein

Marc Blitzstein 1905 - 1964

Marcus Samuel Blitzstein was born on March 5, 1905 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania United States, and died at age 58 years old in January 1964 at Caribbean Sea in Martinique. Marcus Blitzstein was buried at Chelten Hills Cemetery 1701 Washington Ln, in Philadelphia. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Marc Blitzstein.

Marcus Samuel Blitzstein
Name
Update name details
Last residence
Update residence details
March 5, 1905
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States
Birth
Update birth details
January 1964
Caribbean Sea in , Martinique
Death
Update death details
Male
Looking for someone else
Updated: July 26, 2022
Biography ID: 17361927 What's this
Marc Blitzstein Marcus Blitzstein (1905 - 1964)
ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM
This page exists for YOU
and everyone who remembers Marcus.
Share what you know,
even ask what you wish you knew.
Invite others to do the same,
but don't worry if you can't...
Someone, somewhere will find this page,
and we'll notify you when they do.

Marcus Samuel Blitzstein's History: 1905 - 1964

Uncover new discoveries and connections today by sharing about people & moments from yesterday.
- Discover how AncientFaces works.

  • Introduction

    Composer, Author, Actor. Marc Blitzstein, an American musician, wrote the lyrics and composed the music for several films, which include, "What Woman Want" in 2000, "Cradle Will Rock" in 1999, "Die Dreigroschenoper" in 1962, "The True Glory" in 1945, "Native Land" in 1942, "Night Shift" in 1941, "Valley Town" in 1940, "Too Much Johnson" in 1938 and "The Spanish Earth" in 1937. Blitzstein's musical compositions are "Regina," "Reuben, Reuben," "Juno," "Nickel Under the Foot," "Art for Art's Sake," "Francey," "Pirate Jenny," "Barbara's Song," "Army Song," "The Liffey Waltz," "One Kind Word," and "I Wish It Was So." Born the son of a wealthy banker, his musical talents were recognized early with piano lessons. He studied music composition at the Curtis Institute from 1924 to 1926, and then briefly in Berlin and Paris before his involvement with the Composers Collective of New York and the New York Composers Forum-Laboratory. His first successful piece was with his 1928 one-act opera "Triple Sec," which ran on Broadway as part of Garrick Gaities in 1930. In 1937 he received national attention when his pro-union musical "The Cradle Will Rock," directed by Orson Welles, was halted for a short time by the Works Progress Administration, but eventually had 108 performances. He had a role as a piano player in this musical. After he joined the American Communist Party in the 1930s, he wrote political articles for left-wing periodicals. He had a role in the 1941 "No for an Answer," but this production was also closed for political reasons. During World War II, he served in the US Air Force in England as the director of the American broadcasting station in London. He was married for three years before his wife's death from breast cancer. His adaption of "The Threepenny Opera" was performed on Broadway starting in 1954 for seven years and contained his only hit song "Mack the Knife." Singer Bobby Darin recorded "Mack the Knife" in 1959, becoming a #1 Billboard hit for nine non-consecutive weeks. Bio by: Linda Davis Family Members Parents Samuel Marcus Blitzstein 1880–1945 Anna Blitzstein Anna Blitzstein 1882–1970 Siblings Josephine Davis Josephine Blitzstein Davis 1902–1987
  • 03/5
    1905

    Birthday

    March 5, 1905
    Birthdate
    Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania United States
    Birthplace
    ADVERTISEMENT BY

  • Ethnicity & Family History

    Marc Blitzstein was born on March 2, 1905, the son of a south Philadelphia banker. Samuel M. Blitzstein, and Anna Levitt Blitzstein. The boy's mother was very fond of singing, and he was attracted to the family's living‐room piano shortly after he began to walk. At the age of 3 he was playing by ear works by Offenbach and Mendelssohn‐music his father whistled around the house.

  • Early Life & Education

    After attending West Philadelphia High School, he went to the University of Pennsylvania from 1921 to 1923 on a scholarship. He then went to the Curtis Institute to study music and, in 1927, to the Akademie de Künst in Berlin.

  • Religious Beliefs

    None.

  • Military Service

    Mr. Blitzstein served in the Army in World War II.

  • Professional Career

    Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905 – January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. He is known for The Cradle Will Rock and for his off-Broadway translation/adaptation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. His works also include the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes; the Broadway musical Juno, based on Seán O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock; and No for an Answer. He completed translation/adaptations of Brecht's and Weill's musical play Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and of Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children with music by Paul Dessau. Blitzstein also composed music for films, such as Surf and Seaweed (1931) and The Spanish Earth (1937), and he contributed two songs to the original 1960 production of Hellman's play Toys in the Attic. Marc Blitzstein and the cast of The Cradle Will Rock (1937) Blitzstein was born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1905, to affluent parents. Blitzstein's musical gifts were apparent at an early age; he had performed a Mozart piano concerto by the time he was seven. He went on to study piano with Alexander Siloti (a pupil of Tchaikovsky and Liszt), and made his professional concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Liszt's E-flat Piano Concerto when he was 21. After studying composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, he went to Europe to continue his studies in Berlin with Arnold Schoenberg (with whom he did not get on), and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger (with whom he did). Despite his later political beliefs, he was, in the early years of his career, a self-proclaimed and unrepentant artistic snob, who firmly believed that true art was only for the intellectual elite. He was vociferous in denouncing composers—in particular Respighi, Ravel, and Kurt Weill—who, he felt, debased their standards to reach a wider public. His works of this period, mostly pianistic vehicles such as the Piano Sonata (1927) and the Piano Concerto (1931) are typical of the Boulanger-influenced products of American modernism — strongly rhythmic (though not influenced by jazz) and described by himself as "wild, dissonant and percussive." These early works were far removed from the Schoenberg style. The dramatic premiere of the pro-union The Cradle Will Rock took place at the Venice Theater on June 16, 1937. The cast had been locked out of the Maxine Elliott Theatre by the Works Progress Administration, the government agency which had originally funded the production, so the cast and musicians walked with the audience to the nearby Venice. There, without costumes or sets, they performed the work concert-style, actors and musicians alike, sitting among the audience (to evade union restrictions on their performance) with Blitzstein narrating from the piano. In 1939, Leonard Bernstein led a revival of the play at Harvard, narrating from the piano just as Blitzstein had done. Blitzstein attended the performance, after which he and Bernstein became close friends; Bernstein would later say that Blitzstein's contribution to the American musical theatre was "incalculable". The 1999 film Cradle Will Rock was based on this event, though heavily embellished. In the film, Blitzstein (played by Hank Azaria) is portrayed as gaining inspiration through ghostly appearances by his idol Brecht and his late anorexic wife. Blitzstein playing the piano beneath a BBC microphone Blitzstein in U.S. Army Air Corps uniform (London 1943) Additional major compositions include the autobiographical radio song play I've Got the Tune, The Airborne Symphony (1946), Regina (1949), Reuben, Reuben (1955), and Juno (1959). At the time of his death Blitzstein was at work on Idiots First, a one-act opera based on the eponymous story by Bernard Malamud – intended to be part of a set of one-acters called Tales of Malamud – which Ned Rorem has called "his best work". This was followed by the work Blitzstein intended to be his magnum opus, a three-act opera commissioned by the Ford Foundation and optioned by the Metropolitan Opera entitled Sacco and Vanzetti. Both Tales of Malamud and Sacco and Vanzetti were completed posthumously, with the approval of Blitzstein's estate, by composer Leonard Lehrman. Lehrman's long-awaited Marc Blitzstein: A Bio-Bibliography, published in 2005 by Praeger, is the longest published biographical bibliography of any American composer at 645 pages.

  • Personal Life & Family

    Selected works See also: Category:Compositions by Marc Blitzstein Triple-Sec (1928) Garrick Gaieties (1930) — revue — contributing composer (revival of Triple-Sec) The Harpies, opera (1931) The Condemned (1932, unproduced) Parade (1935) — revue — featured songwriter The Spanish Earth (1937) — composer with Virgil Thomson Caesar (1937) — play revival — incidental music composer Pins and Needles (1937) — revue — contributing bookwriter The Cradle Will Rock (1938) — musical — composer, lyricist, bookwriter, director, pianist, and actor in the roles of Clerk, First Reporter, and Professor Mamie Danton's Death (1938) — play revival — incidental music composer I've Got the Tune (1938) — radio opera No for an Answer (1941) Native Land (1942) The Airborne Symphony (1946) — symphony — composer Another Part of the Forest (1946) — play — incidental music composer Androcles and the Lion (1946) — play revival — incidental music composer Regina (1949) — opera — composer and orchestrator, librettist Let's Make an Opera (1950) — special performance — director King Lear (1950) — play revival — incidental music composer The Threepenny Opera (1954) — operetta revival — editor of Bertolt Brecht's book and lyrics into English Reuben, Reuben (1955) — opera Juno (1959) — musical — composer, lyricist and co-orchestrator Toys in the Attic (1960) — play — featured songwriter for "French Lessons in Songs" and "Bernier Day" Tales of Malamud (two one-act operas): Idiots First (1963, unfinished, completed by Leonard Lehrman, 1973) and The Magic Barrel (1964, unfinished) Sacco and Vanzetti (1964, unfinished opera, completed by Leonard Lehrman, 2001)
  • 01/dd
    1964

    Death

    January 1964
    Death date
    Murdered by 3 sailors who beat him to death.
    Cause of death
    Caribbean Sea in Martinique
    Death location
    ADVERTISEMENT BY

  • Gravesite & Burial

    mm/dd/yyyy
    Funeral date
    Chelten Hills Cemetery 1701 Washington Ln, in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania 19138, United States
    Burial location

  • Obituary

    Marc Blitzstein, Composer, 58 ‘Threepenny Opera’ Adapter Wrote ‘Regina’—Had Been Prodigy on the Piano Jan. 24, 1964 Marc Blitzstein, the operatic and theatrical composer, was killed in an automobile accident Wednesday night on Martinique in the West Indies. The former piano prodigy and adapter and translator of the “Threepenny Opera” was 58 years old. Mr. Blitzstein, whose death was reported yesterday by members of his family, had been in Martinique since Nov. 1. He was there for swimming—his only hobby—and composing. He left several operas incomplete, including “Sacco and Vanzetti,” which was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Blitzstein was a slender, quiet man without the moody temperament associated with the artistic world. His only visible eccentricity was his mustache — which he would shave off impulsively, only to start growing it immediately again. His career, however, had its days of conflict and controversy, beginning in 1937 when his pro‐labor operetta, “The Cradle Will Rock,” sponsored by the Federal Theater Project, was ordered off the stage by a Federal edict. The grounds for the order were that the Works Projects Administration was being reorganized and personnel was being cut. The producers, Orson Welles and John Houseman, having already sold tickets and believing that they had a superb production, hired their own theater. The W.P.A. actors remained offstage, so that technically they were not violating an Actors Equity order against participating in an unauthorized presentation — and the show went on. The actors spoke their lines and sang their parts from the floor and Mr. Blitzstein (not affected by anyone's edict) sat at the piano in the center of the stage, the spotlight picking him out against a blue backdrop, and played the entire score. It was an exciting, successful evening for all. Mr. Blitzstein's next opera about the workers, “No for an Answer,” aroused opposition from New York's License Commissioner, who discovered that the Mecca Temple on West 55th Street did not have a theater license and that alleged building violations prevented issuing a permit. The opera eventually did have its run in 1941, but some critics considered it to lack the wit and inspiration of “The Cradle Will Rock.” In the same year, Mr. Blitzstein wrote in a letter published in The New York Times: “Musical snobbery is with us again. Just who decides, please, that Ravel's ‘Bolero’ is an ‘experience’ and may therefore join the anointed in Carnegie Hall, while Cole Porter's ‘Begin the Beguine’ must not crash the gate, being merely ‘entertainment? Which category contains Rossini? How about ‘Carmen’? Offenbach? The waltzes of Strauss? Negro spirituals? And should we take symphonic and operatic concerts off the air, since the radio is apparently the province of ‘entertainment’? “This is a generalization based upon the old Puritan notion that if a piece is serious, it ought not give too much pleasure; and, per contra, if it does give pleasure, or even fun, it cannot be much good.” Even though Mr. Blitzstein's opera based on the Sacco‐Vanzetti murder case of the nineteen‐twenties was never finished, its very possibility caused controversy in Louisville, Ky., in 1960. The directing board of the 600,000‐member National Federation of Music Clubs, meeting then in Louisville, adopted a resolution opposing the opera on the grounds that Mr. Blitzstein was an admitted member of the Communist party from 1938 to 1949. The Metropolitan Opera's spokesman, Anthony A. Bliss, said in reply, “Since Mr. Blitzstein avows that he no longer maintains his past political affiliations, we do not feel that we should prejudge the work.” Marc Blitzstein was born on March 2, 1905, the son of a south Philadelphia banker. Samuel M. Blitzstein, and Anna Levitt Blitzstein. The boy's mother was very fond of singing, and he was attracted to the family's living‐room piano shortly after he began to walk. At the age of 3 he was playing by ear works by Offenbach and Mendelssohn‐music his father whistled around the house. Immediately, the family hired musical tutors, fearing that the boy might otherwise play only by ear. At 6. he made the first of many public appearances in Philadelphia. After attending West Philadelphia High School, he went to the University of Pennsylvania from 1921 to 1923 on a scholarship. He then went to the Curtis Institute to study music and, in 1927, to the Akademie de Künst in Berlin. In 1933. in Philadelphia, he married Miss Eva Goldbeck, a New York writer and daughter of Mrs. Edward Goldbeck, a singer known professionally as Lina Arabanell. They had no children. Mrs. Blitzstein died in 1936. After Mr. Blitzstein's first public triumph in 1937 with “The Cradle Will Rock” and “No for an Answer”‐both were revived by the New York City Opera Company — he produced work regularly, and well. There was “Regina,” an opera based on Lillian Hellman's “The Little Foxes,” and his other operas and musicals included “Triple‐Sec.” “The Harpies,” “The Condemned,” “Parabola and Circula.” “Reuben, Reuben” and “Juno.” In “Juno,” Mr. Blitzstein's song ?We're Alive” was said to epitomize the terrible strength and fury of Sean O'Casey's “Juno and the Paycock,” on which the musical was based. Mr. Blitzstein's most popular contribution to the musical stage, however, was his translation from the German of Kurt Weill's and Bertolt Brecht's “Threepenny Opera.” His symphonies, “The Airborne” and “Freedom Morning,” were performed by his friend, Leonard Bernstein and the New York City Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He also wrote incidental music for stage productions such as “Julius Caesar,” “Danton,” “The True Glory” and “Native Land.” Leonard Bernstein said on hearing of the composer's death: “Mr. Blitzstein was so close a personal friend that I cannot even begin to measure our loss of him as a composer. I can think only that I have lost a part of me; but I know also that music has lost an invaluable servant. His special position in musical theater is irreplaceable.” “Mr. Blizstein received two Guggenheim fellowships and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, whose composition prize he won in 1946. Mr. Blitzstein served in the Army in World War II. He is survived by his mother in Philadelphia, who is 81 years old, and a sister, Mrs. Edward Davis.
    ADVERTISEMENT BY
    Looking for more information?
  • share
    Memories
    below
Advertisement
Advertisement

4 Memories, Stories & Photos about Marcus

Marc Blitzstein
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
07/26/2022
Marc Blitzstein
Composing.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
Comments
Leave a comment
The simple act of leaving a comment shows you care.
Cancel Share
Marc Blitzstein
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
07/26/2022
Marc Blitzstein
At the piano.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
Comments
Leave a comment
The simple act of leaving a comment shows you care.
Cancel Share
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905 – January 22, 1964),
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
07/26/2022
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905 – January 22, 1964),
Librettist - Composer.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
Comments
Leave a comment
The simple act of leaving a comment shows you care.
Cancel Share
Marc Blitzstein.
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
07/26/2022
Marc Blitzstein.
I restored this photo.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
Comments
Leave a comment
The simple act of leaving a comment shows you care.
Cancel Share
Loading...one moment please loading spinner
- See how biographies work.
Be the 1st to share and we'll let you know when others do the same.
ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM
Advertisement

Marcus Blitzstein's Family Tree & Friends

Marcus Blitzstein's Family Tree

Parent
Parent
Marc Blitzstein
Marc Blitzstein Mar 5, 1905 - Jan 1964
Partner
Child
Sibling
Advertisement
Advertisement
Friendships

Marcus' Friends

Friends of Marcus Friends can be as close as family. Add Marcus' family friends, and his friends from childhood through adulthood.
Advertisement
Advertisement
1 Follower & Sources

Connect with others who remember Marcus Blitzstein to share and discover more memories. People who have contributed to this page are listed below and in the Biography History of changes. Sign in to to view changes.

ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM
Advertisement
Other Biographies

Other Blitzstein Family Biographies

Blitzstein, Jacob (Apr 9, 1888 - Jun 1973) Blitzstein, Esther (Oct 18, 1890 - Apr 1974) Blitzstein, Ethel (Dec 5, 1911 - Jan 13, 2004) Blitzstein, Hilda (Jan 12, 1912 - Jun 23, 1990) Blitzstein, Mary (May 2, 1897 - Jan 1974) Blitzstein, Gnesia (Nov 15, 1906 - Apr 1981) Blitzstein, Betty (Dec 16, 1904 - Dec 1976) Blitzstein, Jack (Jan 17, 1897 - Apr 1973) Blitzstein, Robert (Aug 5, 1928 - Feb 1984) Blitzstein, Mildred (Aug 26, 1914 - Aug 20, 2011)
Blitzstein, Edward (Sep 24, 1906 - Feb 7, 1992) Blitzstein, Martha (Apr 15, 1887 - Nov 1971) Blitzstein, Albert (Feb 21, 1914 - Dec 18, 2003) Blitzstein, Harry (Jun 6, 1881 - Dec 1969) Blitzstein, Frank (Jun 15, 1897 - Apr 1979) Blitzstein, Nathan (Jul 20, 1920 - Apr 10, 2001) Blitzstein, Samuel (Apr 1, 1905 - Feb 1981) Blitzstein, Pauline (Feb 26, 1918 - Oct 1983) Blitzstein, Helen (Oct 18, 1914 - Dec 1, 2003) Blitzstein, Gertrude (Jul 23, 1920 - Aug 24, 2005)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Show more
  2. People
  3. Surname Directory
  4. B
  5. Blednyh - Blueback
  6. Blitvich - Blkanton
  7. Blitzstein
  8. Marc Blitzstein
Back to Top
Advertisement
Advertisement