Lys symonette

Bertlies "Lys" Symonette b. Bertlies Weinschenk , (born December 21, 1914 in Mainz , † November 27, 2005 in New York ) was a German-American musician, singer and composer. She was an employee of Kurt Weill and later Vice President of the Kurt Weill Foundation.

Life

Bertlies Weinschenk was the daughter of the Mainz wine merchant Max Weinschenk (1881–1926). Your mother Gertrud, b. Mezger (1889–1975) was a concert singer. Her paternal uncle Jacob Hugo Weinschenk was an enthusiastic cellist who also wrote sonnets. After her father's death in 1924, she and her sister, Marianne Willi Honheisser, who was four years younger than her, became their stepfather. She attended the Linkenbach private school and then the secondary school for daughters in Mainz, where she graduated from high school in 1934. She was particularly good at singing and playing the piano. She was taught by Lothar Windsperger at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory . For a short time she studied piano and singing in Berlin before she had to move to Cologne to live with her sister. In 1936 she fled via Italy to Cuba and in 1938 to the USA. Her sister also managed to escape to the USA. Bertlies Weinschenk studied music at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia , where she was tutored by Vera Brodsky in piano and Elisabeth Schumann in singing. There she also met Ned Rorem , whose songs she sang first in public.

After graduation, she performed regularly with Alberta Masiello in clubs across the United States in the early 1940s. She then worked as a répétiteur on Broadway in New York, where she met Kurt Weill, who hired her as an employee. Maurice Abravanel recommended her to Kurt Weill as rehearsal pianist for the Broadway musical The Firebrand of Florence . She worked closely with him until Kurt Weill's death in 1950. Even if she sang from time to time, her most important work was that of the répétiteur and singing teacher.

In 1949 Lys Weinschenk married the baritone Randolph Symonette.

After Kurt Weill's death in 1950, Lys Symonette returned to West Germany with her husband. Randolph Symonette sang Wagner operas in various opera houses . In 1953/4 he sang at the State Theater in Mainz . During her stay in Germany, Lys Symonette promoted the work of Kurt Weill, a. a. by translating his later work.

Ten years later they both returned to New York, where Rudolph appeared at the Metropolitan Opera . Lys performed as piano accompaniment with Weill's partner, the actress and singer Lotte Lenya . Together they administered and promoted the legacy and memory of Kurt Weill. Many previously unpublished songs by Kurt Weill have been published, including a. Youkali . In 1968, the Symonette couple moved to Tallahassee , where Rudolph was a professor at Florida State University . But two years later they returned to New York, where Lys Symonette worked with Lotte Lenya on the English-language premiere of Weill's opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny . Lys Symonette worked on the translation of the opera together with Arnold Weinstein. In addition to her work as a singing teacher at the Curtis Institute, she worked on several Weill productions. In addition, she tried to perform previously unknown Weill songs.

After Lenya's death in 1981, Lys Symonette supported the work of Kurt Weill as Vice-President of the Kurt Weill Foundation.

Lys Symonette died of a heart attack in New York in November 2005.

Her son Victor C. Symonette is a conductor.

literature

Women's life in Magenza. The portraits of Jewish women from the Mainz women's calendar and texts on women's history in Jewish Mainz. Mainz 2010.
Kurt Weill: Speak softly when you say love: the correspondence between Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya (ed. And translated by Lys Symonette). Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-462-02748-4 .
Kurt Weill: Letters to the Family (1914–1950) (edited by Lys Symonette). Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-45244-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Kim H. Kowalke: Lys Symonette (1914-2005). Last Artistic Link to Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya dies at age 90. In: The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Accessed July 19, 2019 .
^ Jacob Hugo Weinschenk: The five sails: poems . Berlin 1913.
↑ ^a ^b Christine Villinger: Lady from the Dark. In: Allgemeine Zeitung. December 28, 2017. Retrieved July 19, 2019 .
↑ Lys Symonette. In: Digital art and culture archive. State capital Düsseldorf, December 28, 2017, accessed on July 19, 2019 .
↑ Lys Symonette, Kim H. Kowalke (ed.): Speak softly when you say love: the correspondence between Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya . Cologne 1998, ISBN 978-3-462-02748-8 .
^ ^A ^b William V. Madison: Lys Symonette. November 29, 2005, accessed July 19, 2019 .
↑ Women's life in Magenza. The portraits of Jewish women from the Mainz women's calendar and texts on women's history in Jewish Mainz. Mainz 2010, p. 42.

personal data
SURNAME	Symonette, Lys
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Symonette, Bertlies; Weinschenk, Bertlies (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-American musician, singer and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	December 21, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mainz
DATE OF DEATH	November 27, 2005
Place of death	new York

[:1-1] Kim H. Kowalke: Lys Symonette (1914-2005). Last Artistic Link to Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya dies at age 90. In: The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Accessed July 19, 2019 .

[2] Jacob Hugo Weinschenk: The five sails: poems . Berlin 1913.

[:0-3] Christine Villinger: Lady from the Dark. In: Allgemeine Zeitung. December 28, 2017. Retrieved July 19, 2019 .

[4] Lys Symonette. In: Digital art and culture archive. State capital Düsseldorf, December 28, 2017, accessed on July 19, 2019 .

[5] Lys Symonette, Kim H. Kowalke (ed.): Speak softly when you say love: the correspondence between Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya . Cologne 1998, ISBN 978-3-462-02748-8 .

[:2-6] A ^b William V. Madison: Lys Symonette. November 29, 2005, accessed July 19, 2019 .

[7] Women's life in Magenza. The portraits of Jewish women from the Mainz women's calendar and texts on women's history in Jewish Mainz. Mainz 2010, p. 42.