Charles Osborne sets the scene of some operas and musicals by Kurt Weill (gramophone records)

Kurt Weill's career began in pre-Hitler Germany with classical opera, but he was soon in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht, to perfect a new and more popular form of musical theatre with "The Threepenny Opera" and "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny".
After the rise of Hitler, Weill and his wife, the singer and actress Lotte Lenya, emigrated to the USA where Weill finally became a highly successful composer of Broadway musicals such as "Lady in the Dark", "Knickerbocker Holiday" and "Lost in the Stars".
From Berlin to Broadway, his aim remained constant: to compose works, whether operas or musicals, which were relevant to their time and place.