Born Karoline Blamauer in 1898, Lenya began her career as an actress and dancer in Zurich. In 1920's Berlin she met and married the young composer Kurt Weill, and the two of them brought their talents to American theater when they left Nazi Germany. This first visual biography of the extraordinary performer is an intimate and revealing portrait that Lenya fans and theater buffs won't want to miss. 80 color photos. 350 illustrations.
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Actress and singer Lotte Lenya personified the decadence of '20s and '30s Berlin, with unforgettable roles created in collaboration with her composer husband Kurt Weill and the playwright Bertolt Brecht. Her performance as the prostitute Jenny in The Threepenny Opera (1928) became the stuff of legend.
Born Karoline Blamauer in Vienna in 1898, Lenya spent an impoverished childhood there before launching her career in Zurich and then Berlin, where she met and married Weill. The toast of the Berlin arts scene, Weill and Lenya left Germany in 1933 following the election of Hitler as chancellor. Weill was Jewish and an advocate of freedom of expression--his play Der Silbersee ("The Silver Lake"), which contained a caricature of Hitler, had already been banned by the authorities. The couple went to Paris, and then, when the threat of war in Europe became imminent, to the United States, where they both enjoyed highly successful careers on Broadway. Weill died suddenly in 1950, but Lenya carried on, tirelessly reinterpreting his and others' work; appearing onstage and onscreen (most memorably as Rosa Klebb in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love), until well into later life. She died at the age of 83 in 1981.
Lenya the Legend: A Pictorial Autobiography is a fascinating book packed full of Lenya's own forthright reminiscences, interviews, and letters, lavishly illustrated with photographs of the star from her vampish Berlin cabaret days, through the glamour of her Broadway career. Published to coincide with the centenary of her birth, the book is a fitting tribute to a formidable legend. --Catherine Taylor
Review
In her own words, Lenya comes across as an extremely shrewd if loving person. -- The New York Times Book Review, David Kaufman
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lenya was bigger than life.,
By
This review is from: Lenya, the Legend: A Pictorial Autobiography (Hardcover)
I you love Lenya, as I do you cannot live without this memoire. I read it so frequently I am almost ashamed. I live in Vienna. Lenya was Vienna
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
