Arnold Weinstein
Encyclopedia
Arnold Weinstein was an American poet, playwright and librettist, who referred to himself as a "theatre poet".
Weinstein is best known for his collaborations with composer William Bolcom
, including the operas McTeague
, based on the novel by Frank Norris
, A View From the Bridge
based on the play by Arthur Miller
, and A Wedding
, based on the film by Robert Altman
. Bolcom described his work with Weinstein as a "true collaboration", and said about him that "He had such a gift for writing words that were singable, and that gave character. He was more influential on a lot of other people than people have taken into account."
With some frequency, Weinstein's work involved adapting the writing of others. He said in an interview in 1992 that "An adaptation gives you a funny kind of limitation that makes it easier to improvise." His early work with Paul Sills
, founder of the Second City Theater
in Chicago
, helped hone those improvisational skills.
to parents born in England
, and grew up in Harlem
and the Bronx
. In World War II
, he enlisted in the Navy and saw service on a destroyer. Afterwards, he used the G.I. Bill to attend Hunter College
, and later went to Harvard University
for graduate studies. He eventually earned a Rhodes Scholarship
.
Weinstein was associated with the '"New York School
" of poets and painters in the 1950s and 1960s, during which time he developed close friendships with poet John Ashbery
and painter Larry Rivers
, among others. Weinstein would later collaborate with Rivers on What Did I Do? The Unauthorized Autobiography (1999).
saw his libretto A Comedy of Horrors and loved it, but thinking it too American for his own use he gave it to William Bolcom
, an American who was Milhaud's student at the time. The result of the collaboration was Dynamite Tonite, an anti-war satire that opened in 1964 at the Actors Studio
in Manhattan, with a cast that included Alvin Epstein and Gene Wilder
. The show was later presented at Yale Repertory Theater by Robert Brustein
.
Weinstein's notable works include the long-running 1961 off-Broadway
satire The Red Eye of Love, about an all-meat department store, and an adaptation of Ovid
's Metamorphoses, originally present at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1969 and subsequently produced on Broadway
in 1971. With a new rock/blues score provided by his then-collaborator, composer Tony Greco, Ovid's Metamorphoses debuted at Gian Carlo Menotti
's Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi in 1973. Weinstein collaborated with Greco on four subsequent original theatrical works: The American Revolution, which premiered in 1973 at Ford's Theatre
, in Washington, D.C.
, directed by Paul Sills
; a musical of Weinstein's translation and adaptation of Garcia Lorca's poetry titled Gypsy New York, presented at Cafe La Mama
in 1974, produced by Gaby Rodgers
, with art direction by Larry Rivers; Lady LIberty's Ice Cream Cone directed by Barbara Harris
in 1974 at the New York Cultural Center, and the San Francisco A.C.T.
production of America More Or Less, at the Marines Memorial Theatre in 1976.
Weinstein's operas with William Bolcom – McTeague (1992), A View From the Bridge (1999) and A Wedding (2004) – had their premieres at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. View was also presented by the Metropolitan Opera
in New York City in 2002. The librettos for McTeague and A Wedding were collaborations with Robert Altman, who also directed the productions. Weinstein also provided the libretto for Bolcom's Medusa: Monodrama for Dramatic Soprano and String Orchestra which was premiered by conductor Dennis Russell Davies
leading the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in May 2003, and the text for the composer's "music theater opera" Casino Paradise, which was presented by American Music Theater Festival (AMTF) in Philadelphia in 1990, and, in a revamped version, by Lincoln Center's "American Songbook" series in 2005. Weinstein's texts were also set to music by Bolcom as Cabaret Songs.
Weinstein wrote the lyrics to Shlemiel the First (1994), an adaptation of the Chelm
stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
set to klezmer
music, and Punch and Judy Get Divorced a 1996 theatre piece by post-modern
choreographer-director-writer David Gordon and composer Edward Barnes
, both of which were originally produced by Robert Brustein's American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, and the American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia.
In his long career, Weinstein also collaborated with Philip Glass
, Andy Warhol
, Howard Kanovitz
, and Marisol
. In addition to his writing, Weinstein taught playwriting at Yale
and Columbia
Universities.
, and received treatment from Dr. Emanuel Revici. Weinstein, who was a decade-long resident of the Hotel Chelsea
in Manhattan, died on September 4, 2005 at the age of 78, of liver cancer.
Weinstein is best known for his collaborations with composer William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
, including the operas McTeague
McTeague
McTeague is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and avarice...
, based on the novel by Frank Norris
Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague , The Octopus: A Story of California , and The Pit .-Life:Frank Norris was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870...
, A View From the Bridge
A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller that was first staged on September 29, 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The play was unsuccessful and Miller subsequently revised the play to contain two acts; this...
based on the play by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
, and A Wedding
A Wedding
A Wedding is a 1978 black comedy film directed by Robert Altman, starring Carol Burnett, Lillian Gish, Geraldine Chaplin, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow, Lauren Hutton, Craig Richard Nelson, Pam Dawber, Desi Arnaz, Jr., Paul Dooley, Dennis Christopher, and Howard Duff...
, based on the film by Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
. Bolcom described his work with Weinstein as a "true collaboration", and said about him that "He had such a gift for writing words that were singable, and that gave character. He was more influential on a lot of other people than people have taken into account."
With some frequency, Weinstein's work involved adapting the writing of others. He said in an interview in 1992 that "An adaptation gives you a funny kind of limitation that makes it easier to improvise." His early work with Paul Sills
Paul Sills
Paul Sills was a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.-Biography:...
, founder of the Second City Theater
Second City
Second City or The Second City may refer to:* The second largest city in a country. See: List of largest cities and second largest cities by country...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, helped hone those improvisational skills.
Early life
Weinstein was born on June 10, 1927 in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to parents born in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and grew up in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
and the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
. In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he enlisted in the Navy and saw service on a destroyer. Afterwards, he used the G.I. Bill to attend Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, and later went to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
for graduate studies. He eventually earned a Rhodes Scholarship
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
.
Weinstein was associated with the '"New York School
New York School
The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s, 1960s in New York City...
" of poets and painters in the 1950s and 1960s, during which time he developed close friendships with poet John Ashbery
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
and painter Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...
, among others. Weinstein would later collaborate with Rivers on What Did I Do? The Unauthorized Autobiography (1999).
Career
While Weinstein was on a Fulbright Fellowship to Florence, Italy, composer Darius MilhaudDarius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
saw his libretto A Comedy of Horrors and loved it, but thinking it too American for his own use he gave it to William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
, an American who was Milhaud's student at the time. The result of the collaboration was Dynamite Tonite, an anti-war satire that opened in 1964 at the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
in Manhattan, with a cast that included Alvin Epstein and Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
. The show was later presented at Yale Repertory Theater by Robert Brustein
Robert Brustein
Robert Sanford Brustein is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright and educator. He founded both Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he remains a Creative Consultant, and has been the theatre critic for...
.
Weinstein's notable works include the long-running 1961 off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
satire The Red Eye of Love, about an all-meat department store, and an adaptation of Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Metamorphoses, originally present at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1969 and subsequently produced on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1971. With a new rock/blues score provided by his then-collaborator, composer Tony Greco, Ovid's Metamorphoses debuted at Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
's Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi in 1973. Weinstein collaborated with Greco on four subsequent original theatrical works: The American Revolution, which premiered in 1973 at Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a historic theater in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865...
, in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, directed by Paul Sills
Paul Sills
Paul Sills was a director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.-Biography:...
; a musical of Weinstein's translation and adaptation of Garcia Lorca's poetry titled Gypsy New York, presented at Cafe La Mama
La Mama
La Mama may refer to:* La Mama - a German disco group* La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in East Village, Manhattan, New York City, founded 1961* La Mama Theatre in Carlton, Victoria, Australia, founded 1967...
in 1974, produced by Gaby Rodgers
Gaby Rodgers
Gaby Rodgers is a German-American actress, theater director, and journalist. Although she worked extensively as a television actress in the 1950s, she is best-remembered as an actress for her role as the villainous Lily Carver...
, with art direction by Larry Rivers; Lady LIberty's Ice Cream Cone directed by Barbara Harris
Barbara Harris
Barbara Harris may refer to:*Barbara Clementine Harris, first woman ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion*Barbara Harris , American actress*Barbara Eve Harris, Canadian actress*Barbara Harris , lead singer of the R&B group The Toys...
in 1974 at the New York Cultural Center, and the San Francisco A.C.T.
American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...
production of America More Or Less, at the Marines Memorial Theatre in 1976.
Weinstein's operas with William Bolcom – McTeague (1992), A View From the Bridge (1999) and A Wedding (2004) – had their premieres at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. View was also presented by the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York City in 2002. The librettos for McTeague and A Wedding were collaborations with Robert Altman, who also directed the productions. Weinstein also provided the libretto for Bolcom's Medusa: Monodrama for Dramatic Soprano and String Orchestra which was premiered by conductor Dennis Russell Davies
Dennis Russell Davies
Dennis Russell Davies is an American conductor and pianist. He studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School where he received his doctorate...
leading the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in May 2003, and the text for the composer's "music theater opera" Casino Paradise, which was presented by American Music Theater Festival (AMTF) in Philadelphia in 1990, and, in a revamped version, by Lincoln Center's "American Songbook" series in 2005. Weinstein's texts were also set to music by Bolcom as Cabaret Songs.
Weinstein wrote the lyrics to Shlemiel the First (1994), an adaptation of the Chelm
Chelm
Chełm is a city in eastern Poland with 67,702 inhabitants . It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some 25 kilometres from the border with Ukraine...
stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer – July 24, 1991) was a Polish Jewish American author noted for his short stories. He was one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978...
set to klezmer
Klezmer
Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
music, and Punch and Judy Get Divorced a 1996 theatre piece by post-modern
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
choreographer-director-writer David Gordon and composer Edward Barnes
Edward Barnes (composer)
Edward Barnes is an American composer and producer.Edward Barnes studied music composition at the Juilliard School with composers Vincent Persichetti and David Diamond, and at Dartington Hall in Great Britain with composer-conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies...
, both of which were originally produced by Robert Brustein's American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, and the American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia.
In his long career, Weinstein also collaborated with Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Howard Kanovitz
Howard Kanovitz
Howard Kanovitz was a pioneering painter in the Photorealist and Hyperrealist Movements, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in response to the abstract art movement. - Life :...
, and Marisol
Marisol
Marisol is a Spanish name. Two Spanish words: Mar and Sol make Mar y Sol .Many argue, however, that it's also a combination of other names, such as María Soledad or María del Sol.Marisol can refer to:...
. In addition to his writing, Weinstein taught playwriting at Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Universities.
Personal life
Weinstein was married three times, each marriage ending in divorce, and he had a daughter, who is deceased. In 1997, he was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancerLiver cancer
Liver tumors or hepatic tumors are tumors or growths on or in the liver . Several distinct types of tumors can develop in the liver because the liver is made up of various cell types. These growths can be benign or malignant...
, and received treatment from Dr. Emanuel Revici. Weinstein, who was a decade-long resident of the Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
in Manhattan, died on September 4, 2005 at the age of 78, of liver cancer.
External links
- Arnold Weinstein at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Obituary (New York Times)
- Obituary (PlaybillPlaybillPlaybill is a monthly U.S. magazine for theatregoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most Playbills are printed for particular shows to be distributed at the door...
)