Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein [Paperback]

Marc Blitstein was a superbly trained classical composer whose serious music is largely forgotten (the only instrumental work available on CD via Amazon.com is his 1931 piano concerto; the CD his magnificent opera "Regina," based on Lillian Hellman's play "The Little Foxes," is not to be found; his agitprop opera, "No For an Answer," which was first performed in 1939, has never been releaded on CD; his "Airborne Symphony" largely written while on duty in the Army Air Force." has also unavailable.)

Blitzstein was raised in Philadelphia, the son of Russian Jewish immagrants. His family was comfortably middle class (they operated a bank that served the immigrant community) but never lost touch with their socialist roots. Marc was a prodigy who scratched out a living during the 1920's from lecturing and writing on the new music. (Some of his reviews trashing some of his far better remembered contemporaries such as Aaron Copland, Virgil Thompson and Kurt Weill made me wonder about his critical judgement.) He became swept up in the social ferment of the 1930's and tried his hand writing inspiring songs for the masses. He was captivated by the Soviet social experiment and saw it as the only chance to achieve social justice for the common man. He joined the Communist Party in the mid-30's and closely hewed to the oscillations of the Party line. (Although his enthusiastic fellow traveling earned him FBI surveillance throught the J. Edgar Hoover era and a 4-page entry in "Red Channels" -- he was hassled very little by HUAC and Joe McCarthy. Blitzstein testiified before HUAC on 1949; he freely admitted Party membership but refused to name names. He quit the Party in 1949 over the Soviet Party's campaign against "formalism," which he considered an invasion of his artistic freedom. One delicious tidbit unearthed by Gordon is that the US Air Force orchestra peformed Blitzstein's choral "Airborne Symphony." which was composed while he was a dues-paying member of the Communist Party, at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Wright Brother's first flight. )

Blitztein -- along with Aaron Copland and Virgil Tmompson -- is in the pantheon of America's homosexual composers. Gordon's book thooroughly explores this aspect of his life, which includes a trooubled marriage to a neurotic young woman writer who died of anorexia nervosa at 31, with remarkable sensitivity and insight. (Blitzstein's obsessive pursuit of macho sex partners led to his death at 59; while vacationing in Martinique he was beaten by 3 young sailors he picked up while cruising waterfront dives and died of internal bleeding.) Blitzstein's homosexuallity provides some hilarious touches (his wartime experiences in London before the era of don't ask/don't tell are worth the price of the book).

Despite a valiant try, Blitzstein never made it on Broadway. During the 1940's and 50's he literally knew everybody worth knowing in the world of American theater -- Lenny Bernstein was a close friend -- and it seemed that he was on the edge of glorious success. Alas, it never happened. He was a much better composer and lyricist than librettist (Bertstein stole one of his melodies for "Maria" in "West Side Story"). Both of his lavishlly produced 1950's musicals --"Rueben Rueben" died a horrible death in Boston and "Juno," based on O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock," closed after a short run -- have disappeared without a trace. Ironically, his only success was off-Broadway: his briliant adaptation of the Brecht/Weill masterpiece "Der Driegroschenoper" ("The Threepenny Opera"), which ran for 6 years at the Theatre de Lys. Royalties from the casr album and the single "Mack the Knife" constitute the vast bulk of Bitstein's estate.

Blitzstein's greatest ambition was to become America's premier operatic composer. Alas, this too was not to be. is first true opera, "Regina," has has several regional productions but has not been produced in New York since 1960. He devoted the last 4 years of his life to an opera about Sacco and Vanzetti, which had been commisioned by the Ford Foundation and optioned by the Metropolitan Opera. He got bogged down in research for this project -- he wanted every detail to absolutely right -- and it is doubtful that he would have ever completed this magnum opus. Late in life he rediscovered his Jewish roots while on an extended visit to Isreal and completed one of two short operas based on the stories of Barnard Malamud; "Idiots Come First" has been praised as his finest oeratic work but, alas, is not available on CD.

Marc Blitzstein was a remarkable man. And this meticuolously researched and beautifully written book thoroughly captures the man and his facinating times. I highly recommend it.