Marc Blitzstein: The Marc Blitzstein Songbook volume two

Reviews

"...the two volumes of the Marc Blitzstein Songbook comprise a unique and extremely valuable resource of American music worthy of much further study and performance. They are desperately needed additions to even the most basic music library and theater music collections."

Melissa J. De Graaf, MLA Notes, September 2003

Volume two of Blitzstein's songs contains thrity-one songs, again mostly from stage works. Twenty-five have never been published before and include a trio, nine duets, and four duet arrangements. The volume contains four excerpts from Blitzstein's unfinished grand opera Sacco and Vanzetti, commissioned by the Ford Foundation and optioned by the Metropolitan Opera in 1959. The ultimate protest work, it was to be the story of two Italian immigrant anarchists who were executed by the State of Massachusetts in 1927 for a crime they did not commit. The opera has recently been finished by Leonard Lehrman and was performed in the summer of 2001. Extensive notes from the editor give background and performance history of the songs. As in the first volume, there are several illustrations of cover sheets of music publications, photographs, performance programs, and a cartoon. Both volumes together present a valuable repository of Blitzstein's creative work as well as a window on a time in American history when some artists were using their art to address social problems.

Judith Carman, Journal of Singing, May/June 2003