Rebecca Schmid, PhD
is an independent scholar and culture journalist
“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”
Recent Articles
Weill, Blitzstein and Bernstein: A Study of Influence (University of Rochester Press/Boydell & Brewer) - available to order
Rebecca’s recently released book explores how Kurt Weill’s formal innovations laid the groundwork for the music theater of Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein although they either resisted or downplayed his aesthetic contribution to American tradition. Comparative analysis based on Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence and other modes of intertextuality reveals that the principles of Weill’s opera reform would catalyze an indigenous movement in sophisticated, socially engaged music theatre.