THE RELEVANT QUEER: Marc Blitzstein, Composer, Best Known for his Opera The Cradle Will Rock

“Shame is the single largest enemy; the sense of being sick, of living a diseased life, is another.”

TRQ: Marc Blitzstein, Born March 2, 1905

Composer Marc Blitzstein, best known for his opera The Cradle Will Rock, was born in Philadelphia. Playing the piano from an early age, he began composing at the age of seven. In 1924 he studied at the newly formed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Soon after Blitzstein studied with Arnold Schoenberg in Berlin, and Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Blitzstein was publicly closeted, though he was honest about his homosexuality with friends and colleagues. He began a relationship with conductor Alexander Smallens, and together they travelled to Europe in 1924. In a letter to his sister describing his need to stay true to himself, Blitzstein writes, “It is absurd to assume there are no sins; there are definitely Cardinal sins — sins against oneself, against one’s law. My sin is, has been… the willingness to corrupt my nature.”

By 1928 Blitzstein had returned to New York where he performed his Piano Sonata. He also began working as a music critic for Modern Music, Musical Quarterly and New Masses. Early on, Blitzstein wrote music for intellectuals. He adopted an “art for art’s sake” approach to writing music.

However, once Blitzstein joined the communist party and became more politically active, he eventually took to writing socially conscious, music. “It is clear to me,” Blitzstein wrote in 1935, “that the conception of music in society … is dying of acute anachronism; and that a fresh idea, overwhelming in its implications and promise, is taking hold. Music must have a social as well as artistic base; it should broaden its scope and reach not only the select few but the masses.”

Blitzstein’s wife Eva Goldbeck, a writer, accepted her husband’s sexuality. On meeting they fell in love and eventually married in 1933. For three years, the couple had a marriage that her diaries describe as full and loving. In 1936, Goldbeck died after battling breast cancer and anorexia. Blitzstein was devastated, and afterwards only had relations with men.

As a distraction from his grief and inspired by the political movements within the arts in Europe, Blitzstein wrote The Cradle Will Rock, an opera about labour unions. Orson Welles directed the opera’s first production, in 1938. Labour union disputes meant that the show would go on without an orchestra, sets, costumes, lights, or union actors. Just in time, on opening night, did the opera even secure a theatre space.

Notorious for its improvised production and political perspective, Blitzstein’s opera was a sensation. Embedded within the song “Honolulu,” are coded references to Blitzstein’s attraction to the men and culture of Martinique. Cradle made Blitzstein famous. Leonard Bernstein later produced the opera at Harvard and became a protégé of Blitzstein. Politically active actor Tim Robbins would make a movie of Cradle’s creation, thirty years later.

Blitzstein went on to write Symphony: The Airborne, while stationed in Great Britain during WWII. Airborne was performed in New York, under Bernstein, 1946. Choreography for one of Airborne’s songs, “Hurry Up,” involves military men first dressing up in flight gear, and then completely disrobing in what gay audiences recognized as a coded striptease.

That year, Blitzstein won the National Institute of Arts and Letters competition prize. He also received two Guggenheim fellowships over the course of his career. In 1954, Blitzstein translated The Threepenny Opera from German, which became one of his most popular musical theatre works.

In 1963, Blitzstein travelled to Martinique, where he planned to spend the winter months. However, on the morning of January 21, 1964, Blitzstein was found stripped, robbed and beaten. Facts around the incident are unclear, but reports suggest that he had approached and made sexual advances to three Portuguese sailors, who then assaulted him. Seriously injured, Blitzstein was taken to the hospital, where he was able to identify his assailants before bleeding to death. The sailors were later convicted of manslaughter.

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

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Marc Blitzstein

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The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance, and Musical Theater