Kurt Weill's Street Scene

A tenement on the East Side of Manhattan is our window into a multitude of precarious lives pushed to the limits. Romance, disputes, gossip mongering, betrayals, and constant tension mark the routines of this community of neighbors in the socially conscious Street Scene, the first opera Kurt Weill composed in the United States after escaping Nazi persecution. The brilliance of the music complements a sparkling libretto by Elmer Rice—an adaptation of his Pulitzer-winning play of the same name—and lyrics by legendary Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes.