BLITZSTEIN, MARC

BLITZSTEIN, MARC (1905–1964), U.S. composer. Born in Philadelphia, Blitzstein studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Arnold Schoenberg in Berlin. Intensely interested in political problems, he developed a genre of operas of "social significance." His short works, The Cradle Will Rock (1937) and No for an Answer (1941), were important though transitory landmarks in the American "proletarian opera" movement. Among his other works are The Airborne (1946), a cantata resulting from his service with the U.S. army in England during World War II, and a musical drama, Regina, based on lillian hellman 's play The Little Foxes (1949). Blitzstein also made an idiomatic American translation of the libretto of Kurt Weill's Dreigroschenoper. His opera on the theme of Sacco and Vanzetti, commissioned by the Ford Foundation for production by the Metropolitan Opera, was left unfinished. He died on the island of Martinique of head injuries suffered in an attackby a group of sailors. At the time of his death Blitzstein left unfinished two one-act operas based on the short stories of Bernard Malamud. One of them, Idiots First, was completed by Leonard Lehrman, assistant chorusmaster of the Metropolitan Opera, and performed on March 1977 in Bloomington, Ind., and received its first New York premiere in January 1978. The story, in 13 short scenes, is of an old Jew, Mendel, spending the last night of his life in seeking means to provide for his retarded son, Yiẓḥak. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baker, Biog Dict, and 1965 Supplement; Grove, Dict, S.V.; MGG, S.V. (Nicolas Slonimsky)