Marc Blitzstein

Marc Blitzstein (born March 2, 1905, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Jan. 22, 1964, Fort-de-France, Martinique) was an American pianist, playwright, and composer known for his unorthodox operas and plays.

As a child, Blitzstein was a musical prodigy, performing at age 5, composing at 7, and at 15 being introduced as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In the 1920s he studied piano with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Arnold Schönberg in Berlin. His first opera, The Cradle Will Rock (1937), is the story of a capitalist’s resistance to unionization. Controversy surrounded much of Blitzstein’s work, which is experimental in subject matter and characterized by unexpected tonalities. Blitzstein believed fascism should be fought with art, and he had a gift for composing music that was dramatic and meaningful. He wrote Regina (1949), an opera based on Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, and is best known for his translation and musical adaptation of The Threepenny Opera (first performed in 1952) by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. Although Blitzstein’s operatic music was in the spotlight because of its political content, it was not popularly acclaimed. He was working on a major opera, Sacco and Vanzetti, at the time of his death.