Kurt Weill - Love Life (James Holmes)

Information

Composer: Kurt Weill

• Love Life

Quirijn de Lang

Stephanie Corley

Themba Mvula

Justin Hopkins

Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North

James Holmes, conductor

Date: 2025

Label: Capriccio

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Love Life (1948) by Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner was a groundbreaking “concept musical” that paved the way for later innovations in musical theatre, influencing shows like Cabaret, Chicago, and Sondheim’s Company. Blending a series of vignettes with a wide range of musical idioms, it became “one of Weill’s best scores,” praised for its inventive mix of American styles perfectly matched to the drama. Created after Weill’s Street Scene and Lerner’s Brigadoon, the work marked a new theatrical form that Sondheim himself later acknowledged as a key influence on his own writing.

Equally active in opera and musical theatre, James Holmes has built a distinguished and wide-ranging career through extensive work with English National Opera, Opera North, and international houses such as Glyndebourne and the Metropolitan Opera. He has collaborated with leading conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle, and appeared frequently on radio, television, and recordings. A noted interpreter of American musical theatre, he has directed major productions of Sondheim, Gershwin, and Rodgers and Hammerstein, and developed a parallel career as an arranger. Renowned for his deep engagement with Kurt Weill’s music, Holmes has premiered and recorded many of Weill’s works and serves on the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Board of Trustees.