Lotte Lenya
| Lotte Lenya | |
|---|---|
photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1962
|
|
| Born |
Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer 18 October 1898 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 27 November 1981 (aged 83) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1922–1981 |
| Spouse(s) |
Kurt Weill (1926–33, 1937–50; his death) George Davis (1951–57; his death) Russell Detwiler (1962–69; his death) |
Lotte Lenya (18 October 1898 – 27 November 1981) was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress, long based in the United States. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language cinema, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as a jaded aristocrat in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961). She also played the murderous and sadistic Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love (1963).
In 1922 Lenya was seen by her future husband, German composer Kurt Weill, during an audition for his first stage score Zaubernacht but because of his position behind the piano, she did not see him. She was cast but owing to her loyalty to her voice coach she declined the role. She accepted the part of Jenny in the first performance of The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) in 1928, and the part became her breakthrough role. During the last years of the Weimar Republic, she was busy in film and theatre, and especially in Brecht-Weill plays. She made several recordings of Weill's songs.
With the rise of National Socialism in Germany, left-leaning artists were not appreciated and although not Jewish, she left the country, having become estranged from Weill. (They would later divorce and remarry.) In March 1933, she moved to Paris where she sang the leading part in Brecht-Weill's "sung ballet", The Seven Deadly Sins.
Lenya and Weill settled in New York City on 10 September 1935. During the summer of 1936, Weill, Lenya, Paul Green and Cheryl Crawford rented a house at 277 Trumbull Avenue in Nichols, Connecticut, about two miles from Pine Brook Country Club, the summer rehearsal headquarters of the Group Theatre. Here, Green and Weill wrote the screenplay and music for the controversial Broadway play Johnny Johnson, which was titled after the most frequently occurring name on the American casualty list of World War I. During this period Lenya had a love affair with playwright Paul Green.
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