SPEAK LOW -KURT WEILL performed by Thomas Dellert

"Speak Low" is a beloved American standard composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by the acclaimed poet Ogden Nash. It was introduced in the 1943 Broadway musical One Touch of Venus and remains one of the most famous ballads of Weill's American period. The Lyrics: The lyrics draw heavily from William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing fittingly reimagined through Nash’s sophisticated, rhythmic, and witty rhyming style. Kurt Weill fled Germany in late March 1933 following a severe propaganda campaign launched by the Nazi party. As a prominent Jewish artist with left-wing political views, he became a direct target. The Nazis banned his music, boycotted his productions, and violently disrupted performances, prompting him to escape to Paris. He ultimately emigrated to the United States in 1935 to permanently rebuild his career as a Broadway composer. Thomas Dellert: A Half-Century of Art and Activism Singer, actor, and director Thomas Dellert has been performing the works of Brecht and Weill since the 1970s, having written and directed acclaimed Brecht Cabarets in both London and Berlin. The year 2026 marks the historic 100th anniversary of the collaboration between Brecht and Weill (1926–2026). To honor this centenary, Dellert is releasing a powerful new series of recordings that celebrate the mastery of modern opera and Brecht’s famous Verfremdungseffekt (the alienation/estrangement effect). In this new collection, Dellert performs: • Mack the Knife (sung in both German and English) • The Alabama Song / Moon of Alabama (presented in two unique versions) • Surabaya Jenny (a distinct twist on Surabaya Johnny) • Die Ballade vom angenehmen Leben (Ballad of the Easy Life) • Two of Weill’s later American compositions: Speak Low and September Song